


I am the key to the lock in your house

by widgenstain



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Abuse of all kinds, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Charles and Erik are the only 'mutants', Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Implied Death In Childbirth, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mpreg, Time Skips, charles isn't shy about using his powers, i also make up my own religion, i make up my own biology, me trying to english, reduced powers, smitten!Erik, telepathic end-of-life care, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:08:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 39,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/widgenstain/pseuds/widgenstain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the same <a href="http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/7736.html?thread=14324280">prompt</a> as <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/348519"> Let's pretend I'm holding your hand</a>  and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/369918"> Ritual Self-Torture</a> (Read those fics, they're amazing!!)</p><p> </p><p>  <i><b>Shaw is King, Charles is his royal consort and Erik is a Knight/Lord. Shaw is sterile but his kingdom can't find out, so he asks Erik to impregnate Charles.</b></i></p><p> <b> <i>He doesn't know Erik and Charles are in love.</i></b></p><p> <br/>I've demoted Shaw from king to an earl and only one of the boys is in love. Yet. </p><p> </p><p>The title is the first line of Radiohead's 'Climbing Up The Walls' which has nothing to do with the fic. Okay, maybe it has. A little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [[授权翻译]I am the key to the lock in your house](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3818377) by [Shame_i_translate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shame_i_translate/pseuds/Shame_i_translate)
  * Inspired by [Ritual Self-Torture](https://archiveofourown.org/works/369918) by [TurtleTotem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleTotem/pseuds/TurtleTotem). 



“But what if it is my fault? There is a chance-” 

“A chance that I had three infertile mates in a row? How likely is that?!! I thought you were supposed to be smart!!” 

Shaw was furious, trailing around in the bedchamber stark naked. Charles huddled up in the sheets on the bed, still trying to grasp what his mate had just ordered him to do.

“No. There is no denying, this is useless” he gestured at his genitals. 

“I need an heir. You’re my consort, you have to bear him. And since I can’t get the job done one of my men will have to do it. You’ll get over it. Just be your usual inactive slab of meat.” 

If Charles hadn’t grown used to the derisive comments regarding his person over the years, he’d probably be offended. But he wasn’t.  
The thought of being whored out to one of Shaw’s footmen, however hurt him. He had thought that his mate would at least have this little respect, or love, for him not to share him this easily with one of his ragged, drunken, ill-bred followers. Apparently he was wrong. 

“What if it doesn’t work with…?” 

“It will work!” Shaw cut him off again. 

“It will! If not...” 

The tone in which the last words were spoken frightened Charles to his core. His gift picked up the steely unbendable determination waving off his mate. And lust for murder. He submissively let his head hang. There was no arguing with him. 

He felt Shaw sitting down on the edge of their bed. The long fingers were stroking his cheek, almost softly, he took him by the jaw and made him look in the milky eyes: 

“It is not your fault.” 

What could have been sweet, encouraging words was so laced with bitter contempt and the wish that it was, that Charles felt the sting through all his thick skin.

“You’re healthy. So beautiful. So ripe. If you could smell yourself right now.”

He kissed him hard, tongue immediately sliding in and climbed on top of him. Charles closed his eyes and concentrated on the pleasure he got from feeling his mate’s naked skin on his own, while Shaw drove into him. 

 

\------------------

 

“What?” 

Erik was convinced he had misheard this. Or that his master was playing a very cruel joke on him. It wouldn’t have been surprising, this was Shaw after all. 

“I want you to impregnate my consort” Shaw repeated like he was to talking to one of the backward children from the fair he had laughed at so hard. 

“As it appears I’m not able to make him conceive, but I need an heir. You’re a splendid, intelligent and skilled young soldier. And your friends tell me that you don’t take to whores, which reduces the chances that Charles catches something nasty.”

 _That I catch something nasty_ was left unspoken. Shaw was sprawled on his black carved chair at the centre of the high table, looking down onto Erik, voice heavy with wine. But serious nonetheless.  
When he had told him to come to him after everyone else left the central hall, his mind instantly had checked through all his transgressions, all the times he hadn’t followed Shaw’s orders. Which one could he have found out about?  
Was it the miller’s son he hadn’t killed because he was only a child? He could lose his head for this.  
Or was it something less severe? Had he learned that he turned his back on Charles handing out the kitchen scraps, mostly more than scraps, like in _their own stocks_ , to the peasants? 

Charles… 

Oh no he couldn’t have noticed, did he? This was the worst of all possibilities! He had tried so hard to hide it. Readying himself for the blow he had bowed down and asked what his lord wanted from him.  
He had expected a lot, but not this! Was he mocking him? Was this a cruel play? He must have noticed the looks he had given Charles. How he couldn’t keep himself from smiling like an idiot every time he heard this sweet man talking. He must have seen how he smelled his hands after he had helped Charles on a horse the last time. Gods, he had tried to hide it under a sneeze but it must have been too obvious. And now he was being punished for his completely misplaced thoughts… desires. Tested! It took all his strength to hold composure.

“Are you sure sir? I mean it could always be the omega.” 

“Lensherr! I’ve had three mates so far, a well-bred noble woman, a sturdy healthy wench with hips for three babies and now a slick boy for four years. None of them got pregnant. I’ve stopped making illusions about it. I’ll never spawn. But I need someone to keep running my legacy after I’m gone. And a child that I’ve raised from the beginning, a child that believes it is mine, could do that. See it as a divertissement. A nice chance to get your dick wet. He’s not too shabby, my mate, isn’t he?” 

The most perfect creature Erik had ever beheld. 

“You are a lucky man, sir.” 

“If I was a lucky man I wouldn’t be doing this. Do you want any compensation?” 

Again Erik couldn’t believe his ears. Since when did Sebastian Shaw ask if someone wanted anything? Offer something? This was a trap. 

“I do not really know how to answer this, sir. You know that I’m your humble servant and I’ll do anything you ask of me… even if it is something so peculiar and possibly behind my abilities.” 

“What do you mean by that? You can’t do it either?” 

“I don’t know. I have never impregnated anyone (Well, there was a reason for that) but if this is your order I will try, out of love for you Sir. You do not need to compensate me.” 

“Mhm” 

Shaw seemed pleased with the answer. 

“Good then. Get yourself washed. I want you at my bedchamber in an hour.” 

“Tonight?!” Erik couldn’t hold it back.

“Yes tonight.” Shaw sounded annoyed. “Or do you have other plans?” 

Actually, he had been hoping for a nice evening of cards with Azazel and Janos. A good night of sleep and some training in the morning. 

Everything instead of forcing himself, or being forced, on the man that made his heart aflutter with a bat of his lashes. By simply asking him to bring a book from the library because he was covered in dirt from his gardening work. Erik could have sworn that it had taken him less than five minutes to get that big leather bound monster back to the wall garden. He might have tipped over some servants during his sprint, but Charles’ surprised smile had been worth it. 

And now this… When he stood over his washing bowl he dunked his head into the warm water and screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT July 3rd: I reduced the number of ellipses in the first few chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

To say that Charles was anxious was an understatement. He had not been able to eat anything after Shaw told him that this would be the night. He had excused himself from dinner early, Shaw throwing him a knowing, almost appreciative glance. 

Now he sat in the bed chamber, frightened. 

This chamber, his cage. 

Four years ago Shaw had brought him here, barely seventeen, leaving all his friends, studies, plans behind at the monastery.  
It had been too good to be true. His stepfather allowing him to join an order, to escape all the silly and brutal mating politics. Only to learn that the order was meant to prep him, to make an ideal noble consort out of him. 

Mild-natured, pious, able to hold some form of higher conversation and most important of all: virginal. 

When he had learned that Kurt Marko sold him to Sebastian Shaw, the earl who ruled the Edrin lands with an iron fist, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to cry, vomit or kill himself.  
In the end he only did the first. In the long arms of his best friend when they had to say good-bye.  
Hank had come to the monastery as an orphan; Charles was the closest thing the shy boy had for a family. He didn’t want him to go, clawing onto him until the abbe had to forcefully separate the two omegas. 

He got mated to Sebastian Shaw, almost three decades his senior, already mated twice before, both of them deceased after tragic accidents. Extremely rich due to his tight hold on the peasants’ taxes, terrorizing the last penny out of them. Making what would be a beautiful, fruitful country hard to live in. 

Charles gift allowed him to see what other people felt, see what was boiling under the skin. He always kept quiet about it, knowing that it could get him on a pyre. He had to try it with his betrothed the first time he met him though, and what he felt didn’t make Charles hopeful. 

Anger, greed, an undistinguished burning hate for so many things, arrogance. But also deep frustration and yes, joy when he laid his eyes on Charles. Immediately swept over by lust, but at least something positive Charles had thought. 

He’d always known that his main duty would be to produce the long awaited child, he even let some of Shaw’s frustration seep into him. It couldn’t be that difficult. There had to be a way.  
And now Shaw had found one, one Charles did not approve of, at all.  
With Shaw he at least had the hormonal bond. The bond that helped him through the pain of the first weeks. That made him enjoy himself; sometimes. 

How could he do this with a stranger? 

Well, not a stranger, he knew Shaw’s people. Which didn’t make it better. 

It couldn’t be Emma, being a female alpha she was only able to sire a child when the omega was in heat and Charles was weeks away from that. He didn’t know if he was relieved or not. At least with her it would have been over quickly and the child could have gotten something of her cunning, if cruel, mind.  
Oh Gods, please don’t let it be Victor. If Emma was unpleasant this man was beyond cruelty. Crude, raw and relishing in the torment of peasants.  
Logan maybe? He was nice to him on occasion. 

No! He didn’t want to bear the child of any of these people! He wanted out of here. 

Out of this prison, this grand prison stacked with books and gardens and plenty of good food, yet still a prison. 

He shouldn’t complain too much. There were so many who were off worse than him. He could get through this. He had to. 

That was when the door opened and Shaw came in… followed by Erik? 

Erik, really? 

The tall and skinny kid that was maybe a year older than Charles? Not any less dangerous than the rest of the crew, maybe even more savage, he’d heard the stories about the miller’s child he had slain in the middle of the woods.

He’d been recruited by Shaw from a group of teenage outlaws, only joining the court seven months ago. He was so young and easily impressed. Charles remembered the day when he did this little trick with the gun powder and his face lit up with an even more childlike grin than the permanent stupid smile he wore. 

Oh, now he understood his mate. Young, mouldable. All the others would see this at their chance at power. It was their child who would inherit the title, if they played their cards right, they could only profit from that. Erik on the other hand was naïve, not well-versed in politics, still in awe of Shaw, he wouldn’t try to usurper him easily. So Erik it was then. 

“Get up!” Shaw ordered.

“You know what to do, Erik?” 

The young alpha straightened up, the eyes that had been wide and fixed on Charles in his fine, translucent night garments, focused on his master and he nodded. 

“Good, go and get a baby in there. You’ve got my permission. Don’t hold him down, I don’t want any bruises on him. He should know how to behave, stopped squirming years ago. Right Charles?” 

With that Shaw threw them a threatening stare, turned around on his heels and left.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers!! Reduced, remember? :) 
> 
> Also another reason why Erik is so nervous.

They were alone. 

Quiet. 

What should anyone say in such a situation? 

Charles stretched the fingers of his gift to see that Erik was a storm of emotions. Confusion, arousal, guilt and most of all nervousness, bordering on panic. How he could look so composed on the outside was beyond Charles. But at least he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable. He broke the silence: 

“So, Erik… should we get it over with? Just tell me how you want me, it will be alright.”

Charles prepared to open his robe when Erik let out a strangled 

“No,no wait! Let’s, let’s just sit down for a while? Please?”

He gestured to the little table where Charles usually had his breakfast. Was this really a clever idea? Shaw would be back soon to check and if he did not find Erik spent, but making small –talk to his mate... Charles really did not want to imagine what would happen. Like he could read Charles’ thoughts he said: 

“I know, he will be back in an hour, I just wanted to talk to you for a while. I’m sorry, I-” 

Why was he so frightened? They sat across from each other, Erik keeping his gaze away. 

“So... what would you like to talk about?” 

Charles used his softest, most comforting voice. The alpha was nervously wringing his hands while he tried to look Charles in the eyes. 

“You’re so pretty.” 

Oh. 

“Thank you, but you know that you don’t have to court me.” 

At least he wasn’t the kind that just threw himself on Charles. This had to count as something, right?

“No, no I mean, you’re smart and beautiful and since the first time I came to his castle and saw you standing on the balcony….” 

The last words were only murmured and Charles looked more and more confused. 

“What are you trying to say? Look, I get it that you’re nervous, but Shaw has agreed and you don’t have to fear anything." 

He reached out for Erik’s hand who almost shrieked at his touch. He had big, elegant hands with long slim fingers. So different from Charles’ small but strong paws. Mindlessly the omega caressed them, not noticing the adoring look Erik shot at him. 

“You’re so sweet, so kind” Erik almost whispered. 

Charles raised his eyes and crooked a smile. Erik gasped. 

“How do you know?” 

“I saw what you did to Holder the other month!” he blurted out. 

Charles froze. What? He couldn’t have. He forced the smile back on his face. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I saw you, at Holder’s death bed. He was screaming in agony, I couldn’t sleep, so I went down to check on him. But you were already kneeling next to the bed. And you did something to him and he went quiet. And then he was dead. How did you do it? Can you take lives away?” 

Charles was terrified. He hadn’t detected anyone near him that night at the deadly wounded blacksmith’s bed. But then he had been so focused on the pain carousing through the man, he probably could have overlooked something. This was not good. 

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything! Is this what they call flattery where you are from? Accusing your master’s consort of murder? Of witchcraft?!” 

“NO!” Erik jumped up. 

“No,” he sank to Charles’ feet. 

“No, I mean, I know you’re special. I’m like you. I sense metal. I can feel it everywhere. Like,” he turned around, “there is a fibula behind the curtains, on the window sill, a silver one. And the quill in the ink pot at the secretary has a golden tip. And there are iron chains under the bed, with-” He grew pale. 

“Oh Gods!” 

“It’s for when I’m in heat” Charles explained hastily, trying to calm down the surge of anger and horror rising in Erik. 

“He chains you?!” 

“It’s for everyone’s safety, you haven’t seen me. This is a marvellous gift you have young Erik!” 

The alpha still with an expression of ire on his face looked him up in the eye again. 

“Thank you.” 

“And I don’t kill people. I can feel what they feel, sometimes read their thoughts when they are strong enough. And if I concentrate I can make the emotions grow stronger or weaker. But this hardly ever works. Mostly only with pain and that’s what I did to Holder, I took the pain away. He died on his own later.” 

The last bit wasn’t entirely true, but Charles didn’t want to tell this to his new friend. 

“Oh... that’s, that’s so much better than what I can do. You’re a perfect!” 

Charles chuckled. 

“Thanks again, but I don’t think that’s true.” 

“You are to me. Have you ever read my mind? What do you see when you read me.” 

“I usually don’t do it all the time.” 

“Please, do it now!” 

Charles had never thought that he ever would hear this wish. Someone wanting him to peek into their mind. He was too curious and too excited to hesitate. He had to do this before Erik drew back. 

“Alright...” 

Carefully he cupped Erik’s face between his palms (so many angles, still boyish, but soon to sharpen even more, he would become a handsome man) and focused. Erik leaned his cheeks against Charles’ hands and closed his eyes.  
It was as if all the fear cleared up and underneath a wide sea of tender emotions appeared. First relaxation, then affection, adoration and hope. The hope for something better, undefined but bright and warm and safe. Charles hadn’t expected such a mind-set from one of Shaw’s soldiers. It was so different from what he usually felt, so much more comforting than the brash and rough thoughts. He was tempted to dive in it and stay there. Then he suddenly saw himself as the centre of these thoughts. It was him that let those emotions rise in Erik’s heart. 

Not his powers, just his presence. 

He saw himself clearly through Erik’s eyes, more beautiful than what he saw in the polished brass, kinder and softer and full of endless wisdom. He couldn’t help the chuckle. Erik opened his eyes confused. 

“Thank you. This is very nice of you. Not true, but very flattering.” 

“What is? You are like this. More than everyone else. Everything I’ve ever-” He stopped himself. 

Charles swallowed. He wasn’t used to such high esteem. And he could never allow himself to get accustomed to it. 

“I am Shaw’s, that’s what I am.” 

He felt the shadows of fear and resignation fall over Erik’s radiating inner life again. 

“Please.” 

Charles had known that it would be difficult to do this, but he had thought it only would be difficult for him. 

“Please go through with this. I don’t want to hurt you, but I want Shaw to hurt you even less.” 

Erik gazed up in the big pleading eyes, the warm un-calloused hands still clasped around his face. He nodded. But there was another problem. 

He didn’t know what to do. 

All he wanted was to kiss those red lips, so he did, softly. The sweet smell the omega was emanating now as a taste on his lips. He licked them. But he had no clue what came next. Charles, eyes fluttering under closed lids, gasped. There was a wave of confusion and insecurity again, only now Charles could interpret it correctly. 

“You have never done this before, have you?” 

Erik blushed deep red, lowered the long, soft lashes that stood in such strong contrast to his hard features and shook his head. 

Out of all of his plundering and pillaging men Shaw had pulled the only virgin to sleep with his consort. If their situation wasn’t that dire, Charles would have laughed at the irony.


	4. Chapter 4

“I’m sorry, I’ve never, I don’t-” 

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t worry…” 

It was better than okay.

Charles lightly stroked Erik’s hair, then pulled him in for another kiss. As soft as the one before, but longer and a little more exploring.  
It wasn’t as if Charles had much more experience.  
He only had Shaw, there never was more physical contact than necessary, always the same repeated motions that left Charles with an undefined longing too often.

Suddenly he realised the theoretical possibilities that had opened up for him because of these circumstances. So many things to try out, so many things to learn. Charles never had let a chance to learn pass. However, as much as he wanted to experiment, to see how his body would react to Erik’s, he knew that there was no time for it.  
Not when Shaw would be back this soon.

He kissed him breathlessly, sliding his tongue in Erik’s warm and welcoming mouth.  
Still kneeling between his master’s consort’s knees, Erik carefully traced over the strong thighs before him. Encouraged by a little sigh in his mouth he stroked the lean muscles clad in the fine garments, all warm and full of life under his palms. The incredibly blue eyes opened again; even if he hadn’t known about Charles gift he would have felt Charles gazing into his soul. 

“Let’s go to the bed.” 

Erik only nodded, suddenly very aware of the stiffness between his legs.  
In one graceful, well-practiced movement Charles got rid of his robe, the scent wafting off clearer and stronger. Not as obscene as in unmated omegas but powerful enough to make Erik’s knees even weaker.  
He had thought about this more often than he dared to admit, had wondered how it would feel to have Charles before him, naked.  
None of his fantasies had predicted this. He felt like he would die if he couldn’t take in all at once. The broad shoulder not yet filled out, the small hips curving sinuously behind, the sturdy legs, thicker and tougher than his own long stalks.  
Touch. He wanted to explore the pale exquisite skin, started to kiss its freckles on the shoulders, tried to savour them with his tongue. He wanted to find out if the omega smelled differently at the gape of his neck, under his arms, the line of hair down to his sex… 

Charles allowed the long fingers to trail over him, but meanwhile resolutely worked Erik out of his tunic and leggings. If he’d been less intimidated by their time running out he probably would have appreciated Erik’s wiry warrior’s body, now however the only thing he could think of was to get him on the bed. He let himself fall down, dragging Erik with him.  
He realised he could guide the dazed kid with kisses and soon he was positioned between Charles spread legs. 

This shouldn’t be this good. 

Not with a man who wasn’t his mated alpha. 

There were rules, nature! Still, he was so touch-deprived that even Erik’s clumsy grabbing-at-everything-they-could-reach hands made him shiver.  
And after a little while the man became incredibly intuitive. The way they kneaded his muscles after a few tries had made Charles pliant, pinched the skin on his flat belly because it had earned him a hitched gasp, reached for his cock… He groaned at the sensation but swatted the hand away.

“That’s not why we’re here” he mumbled, leaving Erik with an insecure look in the round stormy eyes. 

Instead Charles led the fingers to a spot lower, already wet against his own expectations. He would need some preparation; Erik was much bigger than Shaw he had noticed with shock and a little gush of peevish joy. His fertility wasn’t the only thing Shaw could envy Erik f--- uck. 

Erik had pushed a finger in him. 

“Is this right?” 

The genuine concern in the voice was so sweet. 

“Yes… yes, move it a little.” 

Charles was hard, despite the anxiety still raging through his body. It was decisively diminished by the time Erik put a second finger in, staring at what he was doing slack-jawed and a little dumb with lust. 

“More… stretch it a little hghhnnn…” 

How the hell was Erik doing this for the first time? He had immediately reached the spot in him Shaw only got to once in a fortnight, if he was lucky. Now it was Charles frantically touching the lean trimmed body.  
Everything in him knew that it was wrong, NOT HIS ALPHA, but he liked how soft the skin stretched over taut muscle was, how Erik’s left hand was instinctively massaging the back of his thigh, what those long dextrous fingers did insid- 

“Gnnnaah! Again!” 

“What? This?” 

Erik was completely amazed by the sounds he wrung out of Charles. Charles whom he wished so hard to be his. And who was his now; At least for an hour. He could do this for the rest of his life though, watching the man writhe, scrunching up his eyes, his cock getting thicker and flushed like his cheeks, the red, wet lips even fuller when short gasps left them.  
This was his doing. He could make Charles feel this way. The smell thickened, sweet like the dew on a fly trap. 

“Get in, get in please.” 

He raised his legs to Erik’s hips and pulled him close. The kid only gaped at him. Charles moved his fingers over the firm muscles of Erik’s abdomen, down to his erection and guided him in. Erik, who had yelped at the touch, grew very quiet as he seated himself in the tight, moist heat.  
He tried to look in Charles’ face, seek out the big eyes that had flinched in pain shortly, only to go dark with lust a second later. 

He couldn’t. 

As Charles wriggled under him to adapt to the stretch, his gaze became unfocused, everything drew tight and the heat pooling in his groin shot up his lower spine.  
He grunted helplessly, the world dulled out around him and he came in one big spurt.  
Losing control over his upper body he fell forward, forehead against Charles’ chest. 

The omega let out a bubbling laugh.  
Why was he laughing? 

“I’m so sorry,” embarrassment crept into Erik’s fuzzy conscience. 

“So sorry… it just…” 

Tears streamed down Charles’ face. Oh Gods! Had he hurt him? 

“It’s okay, everything is alright. That was wonderful!” 

“Yes?” 

“Yes.” Charles pulled him down and kissed him fiercely and uninhibited. 

“Why… why are you crying then?” 

“Your emotions where just a little overwhelming.” He sighed and kissed him again stroking the stubble on his cheeks. 

“We did it. We did it.” 

That was true. Still, Erik didn’t want to go, he wanted to hold this man folded up under him, flushed and wet from tears, until the last sunset hit the earth. Despite how sensitive the parts still stuck in the omega had become, he wanted to stay. But Charles pushed him away gently, gathering the sheets around him and raising up. 

“Wait, I haven’t… what about you?” 

He gestured at what he knew was still erect, he longed to touch it and help out. Charles seemed surprised for a moment; then a sad smile appeared on his pretty face. 

“No, it’s okay. He’s on his way.” 

Thirty seconds later Shaw came into the room. Angry eyes glued on Erik. Waves of hardly controlled rage in him.  
At last his alpha possessiveness was showing. 

Erik was already up and tightening his leggings and Charles had calmed himself down in the sheets. A look on Charles tear-streaked face seemed to give Shaw relief. His anger subsided a little, and he managed to give Erik an appreciative nod instead of mauling him when he sidled past him. 

“It stinks in here!” 

Shaw was drunk, but still steady on his legs as he opened the windows to let the other alpha’s smell out. 

“Show me. Come on.” 

“Show you what?” Charles asked playing dumb; hoping to avoid what came next. 

Shaw didn’t answer he just walked over to the bed, pushed his mate down, ripped the sheet away and stuck a finger in the opening. It came back white and slimy. 

“Good, good…” 

Then he got up again and started going through their cupboards.

“What are you looking for?” 

He turned to Charles “Sheets.”

“They’re outside in the linen closets.”

“Get some later when the servants are asleep. You change them yourself; I don’t want any more noses involved in this. And the next time you’re doing it in his room, I can’t sleep in that stench” and rushed out the door again. 

Next time. Touching the shoulder where Erik had left a now dried up paths of saliva Charles couldn’t help the little smile curling his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excuse me while I go to die of shame...
> 
> The aftermath of Erik's 'mishap' is inspired by Valentin's deflowering scene in 'The Last Station'. Not by real life *cough* ~~Because if it were, Charles reaction woud be much much meaner~~
> 
> I also took the 'Shaw's checking' bit from primetime. But it's just SUCH a thing for him to do, even if my Sebastian is a bit less evil than the others.


	5. Chapter 5

Erik didn’t want to leave his room in the morning.  
This had never happened before. He was an early riser, up before anyone else, seizing the day.  
Now he cowered on his bed trying to stay under his blankets forever. 

This probably was a bad idea because his blankets were sweaty and smelled of spunk. He had been jerking off three times this night and dawn to the impressions from last evening. He should have done this before he went to Charles. Maybe then he would have fared better.  
Oh Gods he didn’t want to face this beautiful man today. He had been just as divine as he had imagined. Scratch that, it had been a thousand times better. So comforting and (this wasn’t just in his head) he definitely (most definitely) hadn’t been appalled by Erik. 

In his head he played through all the scenarios of what could happen downstairs. Charles ignoring him like the sperm donor he was, Charles being indifferent like he used to be before, Charles laughing at him for being so immature, Charles climbing on Shaw’s lap sucking his face, pointing at Erik and calling him a sappy loser with the whole hall laughing along. His favourite though, the one he had forced deep deep down into the inner workings of his thoughts, the one that could never happen, was where Charles stormed over to him, threw himself in Erik’s arms declaring that he’d found a way to leave Shaw and would come with him because he was the love of his life. 

None of them came true. When they met in the hall after breakfast to go over the duties of the day, Charles was his usual demure self in the background. He only gave Shaw the obligatory peck on the cheek and certainly did not laugh at him. Instead he gifted him with a shy but otherwise non-descript smile, before he excused himself to work in the library. 

There was a smile. This had been the first time Charles had singled him out and acknowledge him in the morning meetings. Just for him. Suddenly it felt there was a balloon in his chest carrying him around, making all the steps so much easier. 

“Well we are in a good mood today!”

“Shut up, Azazel.” 

He certainly had no desire to spill any of this to his friends. Shaw would have him skewered for that.

\------

They didn’t see each other again until afternoon. Erik was just stowing away some of the training lances when Charles popped up behind him. Erik would forever deny the squeak he let out when he saw him. 

“Hello.” Charles said shyly.

“Uhm, hey! How are you, Sir?” 

Charles tilted his head to the side.

“Since when do you address me with Sir?” 

That was true, big mistake. Everyone just called him Charles, even if he was their master’s mate.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to draw attention to... us”

Charles laughed quietly. Changing his usual customs all of a sudden for no apparent reason wasn’t suspicious at all. 

“Did I disturb you? It’s just that I can’t stop thinking about what you’ve told me yesterday. And I have so many questions. Would you mind sitting down with me for a while?”

Erik tried to recall WHAT he had told Charles last night, his memory blurred by all the touching and smelling and putting it in there. But sitting down with him was a great, a glorious idea! Just somewhere where no one could see them.

“I was thinking of the library” Charles said as if he’d read his mind, and OH! Now he remembered. 

Guarded by high rows of books no one except Charles ever touched they talked about what made them different. 

“It’s just so exciting! I’ve always thought that I was the only one. That I was cursed; or blessed sometimes I don’t know.”

Erik just nodded his head in understanding agreement. 

“Sometimes, no always, I can tell the difference between the metals because it’s like they’re speaking to me. Not words, more like humming. Or singing. They start when I reach out to them. And each has its own voice. I was born in Holladria, in Kalgante, it’s quite a big city. There are pyres every other month. I’m sure most of the people on them did much less than listen to metal singing to them.”

A clear image of a skinny woman with big brown eyes, in a face very similar to Erik’s, reached Charles’ mind. Accompanied by an upwelling of pain, sadness and loss. 

Charles took his hand. Erik closed his fingers without thinking.  
They sat there like that for a minute or so before Erik realised whose hand he was holding. He drew back like he’d been stung. Charles coughed.

“So you can feel… hear it. Have you ever tried to talk back? Tried to make it do something?”

Erik looked at him shocked and shook his head. 

“Is that how you take away pain?” 

Charles shrugged.

“No I guess. It’s so difficult to describe. I can feel emotions like I can hear people speaking in the next room, only when I concentrate they become clear. And if I concentrate even more I can see images, thoughts, like something you’d see through milky glass. I have to interpret them, only if a mind is really open, like yours was yesterday they become truly clear. Or if they’re all encompassing, like pain, mostly it’s pain, they manifest and I can… touch them. I know how it must sound to you.”

Erik smiled. 

“I might not be educated like you but I still have imagination. And I’m not afraid of new things like the people in hometown were.”

Charles chuckled apologetically. 

“I’ve never implied that you couldn’t do that. And I’m not incredibly educated. You should see my friend Hank.”

“I’d love to meet the man who can put your intelligence to shame.”

Both laughed lightly. Then stormy-green and blue eyes met. The amused twinkle disappeared and they just kept looking. They didn't notice that their fingers intertwined again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny update because I'm not sure how much I will get done next week (exams...)  
> Thank you all for reading and commenting!


	6. Chapter 6

The next day was the same.  
Charles somehow managed to get them a few minutes just for themselves.  
Another advantage of the library was the portable oven Charles took wherever they sat down. Not that the winters were too harsh around these lands, Erik was used to worse from his youth, but it made things even more comfortable. And the warm yellow the coal gave off looked beautiful painted over the omegas light complexion.

They spoke about Erik’s past. How the young alpha had come here and how he was forever in Shaw’s debt for being saved from a lynch mob that tried to hang him for stealing. There were so many children and teenagers in the woods.  
Cast out by their communities for different kinds of reasons who had to fight to survive in all manners they knew. 

Erik had never thought that he’d ever get the chance to work for a man like Shaw.

Or to get paid work at all. 

Charles had been sheltered his whole life, there were so many horrors out there he’d never experienced.  
And would never experience if Erik had a say in this. No hunger, no prison, no broken bones and no ostracism. 

When he’d first seen the man he’d respected Shaw even more, since he definitely had to be powerful to charm an omega as beautiful as his. Then, when he learned that Charles was not just a pretty face his admiration shifted, especially when he found himself more and more disapproving of Shaw’s methods.  
And when he realised that they were alike… since then he knew that they were destined to be together. 

It had to be a sign from above. The gods had singled them out and it made him hope.  
Hope that there was a better future waiting for him, together with Charles.  
Erik would do everything possible to find it. 

When they sat there huddled together Charles explained how he had learned to mould some sensations that had become tangible to him and push them back. 

Erik bit his own finger and asked Charles to make the pain go away. Charles kissed it lightly with a laugh. 

Then they froze. As light-hearted and childish that gesture had been, it inevitably reminded them of what was the main goal of their acquaintance. They’d pushed it back to the backs of their heads for three days now, just enjoying their company. But Shaw made sure they had to face it again quickly enough. 

Since Charles didn’t seem to be pregnant on the fourth day after their night together, he held a feast from which Erik was supposed to excuse himself early. Charles who never joined his mate’s bouts anyway had to wait in Erik’s chamber. 

Charles knew his castle very well; he had nowhere else to go.  
He visited the high tower often, the sick quarters were at its bottom, and in the little chamber, directly under the roof, he observed the stars at nights when Shaw was gone.

However, he’d never been to any of the guest or liege men’s quarters also situated midst of the thick old walls.  
Erik’s lodgings funnily were nearly at the top as well, with a view he was sure would have been nearly as good as in his observatory. If there had been daylight. 

The room itself, sparsely furnished, reflected the life of its inhabitant: a man who never had had much, always on the move.  
Still, on a cupboard, there were woodcarvings of rough anthropomorphic figures. Gods. A travel altar. The blankets folded, the floor scrubbed and the clothes stored in a trunk.

Not that Charles checked. 

Erik had cleaned up for him. 

There were the books Charles had given him to work on his reading and writing. For someone who only had been taught less than three years, if put it together, Erik was astonishingly literate.  
Especially in comparison to other people at this court.  
Charles wished he would find the time to expand his knowledge. 

He picked the poetry collection up and studied the verses of one of his favourites. It didn’t take long till he heard someone approaching. His spine straightened. Too late he realised that he was sitting on the bed already. But there wasn’t a chair… 

Erik came into the room. He looked surprised for a second (already on bed) but his face gentled very quickly.

“Got away easily, half of them didn’t even notice I went. Hello.” 

“Hello…”

It was more difficult than they had thought. 

Now that Erik had closed the door they weren’t Erik and Charles anymore. They were an alpha and an omega with a purpose. 

Erik washed, a grown-up soldier, Charles out of his plain everyday clothes in the soft robes so much more fitting for a noble-man’s consort.  
He was gorgeous like this.  
Not that Erik didn’t always find him beautiful, but those clothes implied something. Fed desires that always were there but could only be followed in these surroundings.  
He wanted to pull on the robe, see more of the already so cleverly exposed white flesh, however, this was his friend Charles. Charles, who had finally noticed him, finally opened up to him, happily spent time with him and now there was this… THING again. 

Their duty which felt so alien in comparison to what they had done the last days.

“I like the altar. Did you make it yourself?”

You could count on Charles and his curiosity to disperse the tension. Even if it only was for a little while. 

Erik smiled and shook his head.

“No, Darwin made it. He’s one of the guys I used to live with in the woods. I wouldn’t shut up about my mother taking me to the temple, so one day he gave me those.” 

He gathered the figurines and brought them to the bed. 

“Do you recognise them?”

“I was raised in a monastery as you remember?” 

Even if the carving was crude the symbols were clearly visible. It was a sweet and thoughtful gift.

They sat next to each other, the different statuettes changing between their hands, almost like a touch proxy. Inching closer at a barely noticeable speed. When there were no little gods to examine anymore they looked up into their eyes. 

“This is strange, isn’t it?” Charles whispered.

Erik nodded.

“I… you are so beautiful. I won't. If you don’t want to.”

Charles tilted his head a little. He was reading him again. Maybe Erik only imagined it but there was something like a warm presence spreading in his mind. 

“No, we have to. And I want to. Please.” 

The omega leaned forward and tenderly kissed him on the lips. This was what Erik had waited for. 

Charles asking him to be with him. 

Voluntarily. 

Almost. 

How could he think so much when this was happening?!  
The man of his dreams opened his mouth for him, let his tongue in, while tasting like the fertile omega that he was (and like the black salsify he had had for dinner, which was fine. Erik loved black salsify too.) 

Charles began undressing him again. This time however, it was less rushed, the stubby fingers with the bitten nails softly caressing every spot of newly exposed skin. Charles eyes gleamed with a well-nigh child-like fascination.  
A boy unpacking his new toy. 

Erik dragged him closer and kissed him again. It was his turn to peel the clothes off the other man.  
Although he’d mentally (and physically) prepared himself for this, he once more was overwhelmed by how right it felt to lie down on top of the omega; Slowly rubbing against the warm naked skin, feeling the muscles of the compact body work underneath. 

Charles liked it too if the little moans muffled by long and longer kisses were an indication. Or the hardness poking into his belly. 

When Erik reached for his right buttock Charles flexed it, pressing into the touch. Whoever was saying that omegas couldn’t cheat willingly because of their nature was an idiot. NOT SO MUCH THINKING! 

He ground down harder and Good Gods that was a bad idea. Charles was dripping and the smell combined with the intensified friction, brought Erik very close to what he’d sworn would not happen prematurely tonight. Charles noticed and smiled an unexpectedly dirty smile. 

“Wait... wait. Let me try something.”

The young omega pushed him on his back and further up the bed until he was practically sitting against the headboard and the pillow. Charles slid up, straddling his hips. He took one of the large hands and kissed it before he pressed it against his heated chest.  
Following intuition again he rubbed his thumb over a nipple eliciting a keening sound from the omega. 

Charles wanted to be touched, wanted to know how it felt to be surprised by another body, wanted to feel the closeness he only got when he used his gift, wanted to feel it physically too.  
He took Erik’s other hand and kissing it lightly, taking one than two fingers in his mouth.  
Erik moaned.  
Impatiently he stopped teasing the other man’s upper body to reach for Charles’ erect cock.  
Charles blocked him and brought the fingers lower again. He groaned and bit his lip, eyes closed, hands clasped over the headboard. 

Erik already knew this. He wondered if he could find what made Charles make those sounds again. The alpha’s face lit up when the man above him whimpered and bucked his hips. The slick came heavier and the second crooked finger earned Erik hungry and messy kisses. 

“Enough. This is enough, get your fingers out… come here!” 

Charles drew him closer, took Erik’s erection in one hand and lowered himself onto it. Slowly. Back up again and further down once more. Till he sat in Erik’s lap. 

The alpha stared at him, eyes comically round and big. Charles was sure that if he clenched right now this would be over. He would have fulfilled his duty. Not what he had in mind. He grasped the alpha’s short hair, pulled a little and whispered half-serious half-amused:

“Don’t you dare!”

Then he began moving.  
This was the way he liked best when he was with Shaw. He hardly ever got to do it; his mate didn’t like it and only agreed if he was horny enough to push Charles but too tired to do the work. He loved how he could control the angle, the speed, actually he loved the whole feeling in control part. 

It became even better when Erik took his arse in his still slick hands and kissed and softly bit whichever part of Charles was closest to his face.  
Charles started stroking himself, he didn’t do this often, but it felt so very right in that moment. Charles moaned, hastening the motions. 

There it was, a not too familiar heavy warm feeling in his groin, feeding on the electric pulses spreading every time Erik’s dick hit that spot in him. Drawn deeper by the quick slip of warm wet flesh over his cock. 

His legs were straining, he didn’t care. 

He let his head hang on his chest, panting, a delighted smile on his lips, ignoring Erik’s scrunched up face and the muttering of ‘Logan’s night pot’. 

Instead he concentrated on Erik’s arousal, dashing against self-drawn-barriers which were rapidly decaying under the onslaught of Charles’ tight hot body.  
Then, with a last slide down, an undignified half-cry and a desperate grunt the heat in his own groin broke through, taking his breath and reducing him to a shuddering mess. 

He didn’t hear the relieved moan, didn’t feel Erik coming apart under him, everything was blurred out by light and the fast pumping of his heart in his ears. 

When he finally could collect his senses again, he dopily stared at the white stripes on Erik’s slender chest.  
He couldn’t remember when he’d last done this outside of his heat. 

Erik, sweaty panting and flushed, looked down chuckling. He drew his fingers through it and a rubbed some in his chest. He raised his eyes, wearing a wide happy and proud smile that showed off his impressive teeth. Charles kissed him ferociously as if he wanted to make this smile his own. 

Then he pushed forward so he could rest on Erik’s torso. The alpha kissed him on the top of his head breathing in their mixed scents and closed his arms around him emanating the warm surge of peace. 

He didn’t know how long they stayed this way curled around each other, at one point he must have dosed off, because the sweat on his back had become cold and he couldn’t remember drooling on Erik. When they finally separated he was a little sore and Erik winced too. If it was for the pain in his dick or having to stop hugging the omega he couldn’t tell. 

“Will you stay a little while longer?”

“I don’t know… I shouldn’t.”

He could feel Erik’s seed trickling out of him, he got what he came here for (and so much more), but Shaw was drinking with his men and he wouldn’t come back to their room till early morning.  
He shivered. 

“Are you cold? Come here!”

Erik lifted the blanket for them to get underneath and Charles couldn’t but snuggle up to him. Shaw be damned, it wasn’t as if he would notice tonight. Erik ran his fingers over his neck, the small scar Shaw’s teeth had left there four years ago, his hairline, his jawbone... Charles closed his eyes revelling in the feeling.

“Tell me about Kalgante. What is it like to live there?”

Erik looked at him a little confused but pulled him closer in his arms. Then he told him about the mountainous country, with deep rivers, dark woods full of Gods, big lively cities and the best bee sting cakes anyone could imagine. 

Charles had been right.  
Shaw wasn’t back till the morning. In his stupor he didn’t notice that the bed was barely warm when he re-claimed his omega.


	7. Chapter 7

In the following weeks they would meet in the library as soon Erik was off duty. 

Charles showed him his work, he was trying to cultivate more resistant vegetables so they could eat fresh food in winter too, in the same line he had developed the idea of heated houses and in a completely different one he was working on a map of the stars. 

This completely went over Erik’s head but he loved the enthusiasm the small man showed, even if he didn’t understand what he said about deferent and epicycle.  
And it cemented his conviction that it wasn’t just him who was longing for something out of their reach.  
Only a dreamer could think about something as abstract as mapping the sparkling dust on the night sky. 

Charles delighted in finally having someone who listened to him, although Erik’s brows furrowed when he started with his ideas on society. 

“How do you think this would work? The peasants can’t reign a country.”

“Not the _people_ directly, they elect a group to speak in their place. They rule for a while and when the people disagree with them a new group is elected. There are cities in the south that have used this system for centuries. It works.”

Erik shook his head in disbelief. 

“Charles, I see those _peasants_ every day. Most of them can’t decide if they want cabbage or turnips for dinner. They’re good workers but you can’t leave such decisions to them.”

“Ah, that’s why we have to educate them. Like you. You can read. You can count beyond 30. You form your own opinions, like you did right now…”

“This doesn’t change anything. In Kalgante every alpha child of a craftsman is expected to be able to do calculations. They still hanged and burned my mother for killing the fishermen’s baby by inviting in evil spirits. People who knew how to read and write.”

Charles blushed and closed his mouth.

“One cannot simply educate all the superstition and lack of common sense out of people. They will forever be like sheep. Follow whoever bleats the loudest. And in our case that’s King Howard and after him it will be his daughter and then whichever alpha she sires. That’s the course of how things go.”

After some silence:

“So who do you think they should follow?”

“Hm?”

“Who do you think should lead them if not the one who bleats the loudest. Who would you follow?”

Erik could suppress the ‘you’ by a hair. He wasn’t sure if Charles still had caught it with his gift.

“I don’t know… Someone who actually knows things. Enough to make proper decisions. To the benefit of all not just him or herself. Who cares and loves the ones that follow him. Even if they’re sheep. Helps them make their decisions. But also makes sure that they stay in line.”

“But if this helping was done by a group of minds… would that still be okay for you?”

Erik looked up, face still brooding. Then it cleared up and he growled in mock: 

“You always have to have the last word, don’t you?” 

“Yes.”

Erik leaned forward and gave him a light peck on the mouth. 

Charles smiled.

Erik almost preferred moments like these to the nights.  
Shaw still was urging them on. Every time he warned Charles to be careful and to get rid of all traces.  
Surely the laundrette wondered where all the linen disappeared (burned in Erik’s fireplace), but the woman was used to a lot and didn’t question her master’s uncivilised liege men much. 

Erik started getting a grasp of the whole procedure. At first he protested when Charles suggested to try the traditional breeding position, he liked looking in Charles’ face, but in the end he liked looking at Charles freckled back too.  
And the inarticulate contented noises Charles made afterwards, scooped up in the alpha’s arms on soiled sheets. 

The omega started to look forward to their rendezvous and hardly could control his curiosity when it came to trying out and fooling around. 

He felt… invigorated, there was something enriching his life, something that was new and undiscovered and to be fair, quite dangerous. But Charles suddenly dared to be more courageous. 

Not just in the bedroom. 

He became more cognisant of his gift. Even if Erik was right and doing this was precarious in a superstitious environment, he still had to practice with the members of the household. 

There was no harm to be done; he didn’t try to mould any of the thoughts, just read them more actively. Most of the time people thought about food or sex anyway, especially Janos whose quiet demeanour gave no indication of the depraved inside.  
However he didn’t pry for secrets, it wasn’t as if the servants or the knights had many truly shocking ones.  
Victor was incredibly cruel, his emotions dark and driven by a strange feral hunger but that wasn’t something he could have only noticed by peeking into his mind. 

Some other soldiers brought surprises. Emma was difficult to read. It was like splitters of glass reflecting every thought until he couldn’t distinguish what belonged and what didn’t anymore.  
Only when she was drunk she was exposed. Greedy, always amused and lustful when she saw Charles wearing the white tunic that revealed his collar bones. He decided to never put it on again. 

With Logan he learned that he always had wrongly estimated his age. His emotions ran in a deeper carved riverbed than they could have in someone in his late thirties. Charles decided to confront him about that. 

“Well, I don’t know exactly, but I guess I’m only a few years younger than his Lordship… “ came after a few confused seconds. 

“Why would you want to know?”

“… Statistics?”

Logan just shook his head with a smirk, like someone would at a silly child’s play, but it came with a not unpleasant wave of affection. 

Shaw gave him headaches. He’d always been the one he’d read the most, however even with his new confidence he couldn’t really see more than the clean-cut symbols he already learned to interpret.  
Those, in return, sometimes in brutal clarity.  
Everything else more pronounced was lost in murky waters with an occasional twig sticking out. 

Going back to Erik’s mind after trying Shaw always was blissful.  
His friend was the one most open to him.  
Never had he been able to see, to touch so much. 

Not even with Holder who was so vulnerable in his advancing death that Charles had been convinced that no matter what he did, it could only help.  
He remembered how he’d found the screaming man in that night. Pain everywhere.  
Not just physical, there was the remorse that he never had talked to his brother again too. It pulsed nearly as strong. 

But Holder’s brother had held vigil at his bed a few hours ago, he even had acknowledged him, but now the fever ran so hot that the memory had been erased again.  
Charles stroked his forehead and face, reduced the pain as well as he could and then told him: 

"Your brother has been with you. He loves you very much. There is nothing to regret."

And for the first time Charles had felt how his words trickled into a mind and the peace and contentment they caused there.  
He nurtured those two feelings while quelling the pain.  
It took him all his energy, he was drained and exhausted, but when Holder finally started to flicker away he felt something like serenity. 

It had been a wonderful if sad experience, yet Charles felt afraid and ashamed of what he had done. 

If anyone found out… 

Now someone had found out, but this someone was like him and admired him for what he could do. There was no reason to be ashamed.  
And if he kept it under the covers like this, everything would be fine. 

In all his new-found happiness he tried to ignore the dark clouds on the horizon as long as he could.  
But the reality of his situation and foremost his body caught up quick. He knew his heat was approaching. And as much as he revered and learned to trust his inexperienced new friend, he didn’t want the man to see him in this state. No one ever should. 

He couldn’t make out what Shaw thought about the issue. Would he even let them be together? He hoped not; even if it probably would speed up the process significantly. 

Or maybe because it would. 

When the day arrived it felt like he carried a stone in his stomach. How would he act in his delirium? He didn’t want to scare Erik off. What did Shaw decide? 

It turned out that he fretted in vain. 

There was no prickling of his skin on the first day, weren’t any cramps that only could be appeased by mating, no pheromones going crazy. They didn’t come on the second third or fourth day either. 

Charles was pregnant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I've tagged this as a medieval AU and initially, before I started posting, it was supposed to be set in a world similar to 10th century England, but I've started to throw in RL historical elements from the 4th century till the 18th. My verse, so I do what I want muahahaha. 
> 
> Also: can you guess the royal house ruling here? XD I will tag them when they appear more frequently... 
> 
> And last but not least: I do not support the concept of an oligarchy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nonsense biology ahead. The straight A science student inside of me died screaming.

At first, when he told Shaw, the bitterness hit him like a brick. 

This was the proof that it always had been the alpha’s fault. Not Charles’.  
That it only took one green, lanky but healthy boy to give his mate a child. Nonetheless, among all the anger and disillusionment there was joy as well. And then growing excitement. Finally he had his heir. Provided that the child was an alpha. 

He kissed Charles on the forehead and let the carrier pigeons lose to bring the good news to the whole kingdom. Then, in a surprising act of thoughtfulness, he ordered Azazel to ride to Traist, the city at the sea, and get some of the dried figs Charles loved so much. And oranges.  
Never before had his mate shown him so much consideration. Charles knew he should be grateful but there was only relief.  
It had finally happened.

When he told Erik the wave of happiness and pride was nearly as breath-taking as Shaw’s bitterness had been.  
The young alpha could barely keep himself from kissing Charles in front of the kitchen, open for everyone to see who might pass. And in all the elation there was this hopefulness again. And protectiveness.  
It had to be right. Charles may have been unable to feel a physical bond like he did with Shaw, but he was bearing this alpha’s baby, so being protective came only natural to Erik, didn’t it? 

Initially he had worried about him. What would happen to Erik after he had done his duty? But he had scanned Shaw and while he got a new picture of a blooming meadow with a large ash in it he couldn’t construe, it was accompanied by such calmness that it couldn’t be anything bad. 

Later he wished he’d been more apprehensive. In that moment however, he just tried to wallow in the peaceful and warm feelings of his alphas, wondering why there was a hollowness that wouldn’t go away.

\-------------------------------------------------------

Being pregnant had its upsides: He needed a medical counsellor and when he suggested his old friend Hank, Shaw agreed.  
Better to have an omega around his mate than another alpha. 

The monk arrived as a part of Lord Stryker’s entourage, who came to visit and celebrate with Shaw. In the courtyard the two omegas fell into each other’s arms. Not as easy as it used to be. Hank had grown into a giant of a man and Charles barely reached up to his shoulder.  
Charles laughed, Hank cried, it had been too long.  
The public display of omega whimsies soon got boring for the by-standing alphas and their babble about stars and sea creatures one couldn’t eat, scared away even the ones that were less appalled by open emotions.  
Charles took Hank to his little walled garden. There was nothing growing this time of the year, but in the little shed he showed his friend the roots he planned on planting as soon as the first centimetres of earth were unfrozen. 

“These are the ones you wrote about?” 

“Yes, Azazel brought them from Traist last autumn; allegedly they grow below surface the whole year. I can’t wait to try them out!”

They talked for more than an hour about future projects and findings before it occurred to him that the boy probably was thirsty and hungry.  
He asked one of the servants to bring them their dinner in the library. They sat together and loosened by the wine Hank dared to talk about topics he usually couldn’t speak of without blushing furiously. 

“Yes, it is without doubt. I turned eighteen last October and I still haven’t had a full heat. I don’t think I ever will. We'll have to live with the fact that I’m infertile. Not the worst thing to happen to a monk.”

He was so chipper about it that Charles nodded smilingly in full agreement.

“You on the other hand… congratulations! I told you that you didn’t have to fear there was anything wrong with you!” 

Speaking of procreation had never been Hank’s forte. Charles was amazed by how well he managed so far.  
But there was more that needed to be said; Charles always wanted to but couldn’t via letters. Even if it was awkward he sighed:

“No, I’m not the one who is infertile… Shaw is.”

Hank looked at him confused. 

“It’s not his baby. It’s Erik’s, the handsome alpha that lead away your horses? Shaw ordered him to impregnate me because he couldn’t and, well, he succeeded.”

It took Hank a while till he noticed that his mouth was hanging open. 

“How is this…? How is that even possible? He raped you?!! Your mate ordered another alpha to rape you?!!”

“Shhh, be quiet! No he didn’t. I mean Erik didn’t have to force me. It was strange in the beginning, but I liked it.”

Charles didn’t have to use his gift to read the expression on Hank’s face as ‘even if you did, this is ten kinds of wrong’. 

“I know. I know it has been wrong of Shaw, but he was desperate and Erik is really sweet. And intelligent. The baby will…”

“I will ignore my opinion of your mate for now, you know what I’ve thought of him the second he came into our monastery…” 

Yes Charles remembered. I had been hate in such ferocity he had never experienced in the calm omega.

“… but let me ask you, how can you talk about this other alpha as sweet? How could you ‘like’ it? The scriptures and teachings clearly say…”

“I know what they say, Hank. Please don’t judge Erik before you’ve met him. I, really truly me, enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was possible, but there wasn’t any burning like they taught us, the bond didn’t constrict me. It felt good. Better than with Shaw to be honest.”

Hank gaped at him.

“I didn’t feel the gratification I get with Shaw, you know, the feeling that you’re doings something perfectly right, but… I had fun. And the physical reactions to prove it. Erik did too as you can see.” 

He gestured at his belly where nothing that looked like more than a large dinner was to see. 

“But how?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s just me or if the teachings are wrong.”

“One should do research on this! We should! Interrogate other omegas who went through the same circumstances. Monitor them. This could be huge! Can you imagine the high priest’s face when I told him that they were wr-”

“Hank. Do you really think that if there were other omegas they would talk about it? I thought about that too, but no one in their right mind would ever admit to it. I didn’t know if I should tell you for a long time. I just assumed that you’d figure it out at one point anyway, so I wanted to clear it as soon as possible.”

“You’re right… you’re right. So this leaves us only with you. Would you mind if I conducted a few extra tests?” 

Charles couldn’t imagine how those extra tests would look like, but he nodded at the young man’s enthusiasm.

“Alright… I was planning to check on you tomorrow. If I remember correctly Shaw doesn’t possess the intellectual prowess to understand what I’m doing anyway? Don’t worry Charles, I’ll see to it, I’ll see to it and make sure everything is fine with you.”

Everything was indeed fine with Charles. 

The special tendons of his hip bones had started to grow so they could make way for the baby; in a little more than five months’ time they would allow him to push out something the size of the delicious orange he just ate.  
Charles grew green around the nose at the thought of that and put away the fruit.  
At least he’d be done quicker than female omegas. The safer and shorter pregnancies made male omegas more desirable as noble consorts, more babies in less time.  
In the lower classes female omegas were preferred since they lactated and one didn’t have to pay a wet nurse.  
The scriptures fought over if this was an imperfection in the creators’ design or not. Charles and Hank didn’t think so.  
They believed that a long time ago humans lived in packs like wolves, and there the female omegas let the young of the males suckle too. 

In Erik’s mind this theory made sense. He was torn between being glad that his love had been reunited with what he considered family (after what he had told Erik about his step- father and brother they didn’t count), and jealous protectiveness. 

If he’d leave the young monk to his own devices he’d prod and poke Charles all day, who, as good-hearted as he was, would let him. So someone had to make sure Charles got his rest. And could spend time with Erik. 

Funnily enough, Hank proved to be very helpful in that matter.  
Hank, who always eyed him suspiciously as if he was a fiend, but usually left quickly as soon as Erik gave him a strict look (and Charles assured him that everything was alright), came up with a genius plan: He convinced Shaw, the gods knew how, that Charles, in his vulnerable state, needed a personal guard. And who was better suited than a fine young soldier such as Erik? 

To the surprise of all Shaw approved and Erik, next to his usual duties, was now personally responsible for his master’s pregnant consort’s well-being.  
A task that he could never have dreamed of asking for.  
It went without saying that his esteem for Hank grew immensely. He was so glad about this development that he never really questioned Shaw’s motives. 

In the first month he’d been cautious, but Shaw hadn’t changed his behaviour towards him. He gave him an appreciative nod at the celebration where the priests performed their complicated rituals to bless the growing child. That was it. He sent him on the same missions as always, collecting taxes and intimidating the peasants till they paid. Charles didn’t approve of how Shaw earned his wealth, he knew that, but it had to be done. He tried to compensate by being gentler than his colleagues and help Charles give back as much as they could. 

However, he wouldn’t stop working for Shaw. It was the only way he could stay close to Charles.

And if he kept Shaw happy and in power, he wouldn’t see the plan coming that formed in Erik’s head.


	9. Chapter 9

They were sitting by the river just a little below the Edrin castle. 

Well, Erik was sitting while Charles excitedly rummaged through the driftwood the melting snow had swept down from the mountains.  
This couldn’t be healthy for the baby, but it was the first time Charles had been outside the castle in a long time (having a personal guard had its perks) and Erik couldn’t deny him the wish.  
As long as he stayed clear off the water... 

He heard a triumphant scream, Charles had found the timber he had been looking for. The omega sat down on the blanket Erik had spread on the fresh green grass, cleaning the branch and his hands in the bucket of water next to him. 

“Look at this Erik, a mountain larch, they grow right at the tree line. The mountain tops, can you imagine how far this has travelled? And look, I found mussels too! If there were more we could cook them, not that they’re any good or I should eat them-”

Erik handed him some of the rye cake he carried in his satchel and Charles sighed.  
His duties as a personal guard included keeping his master’s mate in constant supply of food. He smiled as he watched Charles devour the slice.  
Two and a half months in, the bump started to show, even under the wider tunics. A change Erik had more than one reason to be happy about. 

The pregnancy made Charles’ libido go haywire in a way it had never before. In the beginning Shaw had indulged his mate’s needs, careful and caring for once, since he didn’t want to harm the growing life. When Charles visibly began to swell though, he avoided him.  
The omega had been broken up about it but Erik all too happily filled the gap. 

He’d been asking around among his friends for advice, starting the rumour he had something going with an inn-keeper’s son.  
Most of it was useless and crude, Janos however, had supplied him with great ideas on what he could do with his mouth. Charles had been doubtful at first but got into it very quickly.  
Almost too quickly, since he wanted to indulge at the most inconvenient times.  
It had brought them into a precarious situation he didn’t wish to repeat. 

They’d been behind the stables, Erik pressing Charles against the wall for a change, when Logan walked around the corner.  
He screamed and tried to tear, what he thought was his violated master, away while lunging at Erik .  
It took an extremely flustered Charles five minutes and an obvious use of his gift to calm the man down. When they explained what had happened, just the Erik appeasing Charles desires part, not the real parentage, the gruff man’s face grew even sterner.  
He looked at the omega for a long time, Erik feeling the iron of his sword, ready to take care of this, one way or the other. 

Then Logan said breathlessly, never taking his eyes of Charles:

“Do you have any idea what mess you’re getting yourselves in here?”

“We… I do. It’s not Erik’s fault, he’s just doing what I ask of him.”

Logan laughed a dry laugh without even an ounce of amusement.

“Sure he does. Your little man-servant. I knew you were lonely but tolerating this to have someone carry food after you?”

Erik’s hand closed around his hilt. Charles gasped. Since when did Logan think about his contentment?

“And you? All the times you declined the omegas throwing themselves at you I thought you were shy. Going after mated ones... You get off on that? Them hating it? Yet so randy and sweet. Did you wait till Shaw dropped him or did you already try when he wasn’t such a helpless bitch?“

“I’m not help-“

“Take that back!” Erik drew his sword. “If you ever call him that again I will cut filthy tongue out!”

“Please, Erik, Logan!”

“You’re the one who’s abusing him!”

“I’m NOT abusing him! I could NEVER do him any harm! I love him!!” 

It just spilled out of Erik. He always thought it, Charles must have seen it.  
This was the first time he voiced it. It felt right and true.  
He didn’t need Charles to say it back, he didn’t even expect him to, but he had to tell him in his own words. 

And Logan, that pisshead, too. 

Charles seemed to be in shock, but Logan’s face slowly gentled and a worried expression appeared on it.

“You dumb and utter fool... This is worse than I thought. You love him as well?”

“I-”

“You don’t have to answer that, Charles. I know it’s harder for you, just, just accept that I do, please? I can’t change it.”

“You stupid stupid children!”

Charles, stunned for a while, not knowing what to say, suddenly saw the image of a girl, no, a woman, in Logan’s mind. Very clear. A silver lock in her long brown hair betraying the youthful face with a gap-toothed smile.  
He realised how he could solve this. Take care of what was important right now and push back his own swirl of emotions for later. 

“Logan please, what he says is the truth. He doesn’t hurt me. I know how this sounds and I appreciate your concern, I really do, but I am as guilty as he is. I know you understand what I have to beg of you right now?”

“… that I don’t tell?”

“Yes.”

The burly man sighed.

“I won’t. But I won’t help you either, when everything comes crashing down. And believe me, it will.” 

He knew from experience. But what were his words worth when both young men looked at him with wide, grateful eyes? Such foolish children. 

Thus it came that Logan was in privy to the affair.  
Erik was wary of him, but the man kept his promise. 

Technically they’d learned that they needed to be more careful, but at the river, at this time of day? Erik scuttled next to the man on the blanket. 

“What do you need a larch for?”

“I’m not exactly sure. It’s one of the hardest timbers. Maybe not anymore after months in the river. All the way down from the mountain ranges.”

“We could see the mountains, you know? On the way to Komoloska?”

“Erik, I’m not running away with you. Not like this.”

“Then after the baby is born.” 

At first Erik had contemplated leaving Shaw his heir, however, the more time passed the less he could imagine abandoning his own child.  
Even if it meant that they were hunted. He had survived like this before, he could teach Charles too and if they reached for the Romanov lands. Stealing another alpha’s omega had a long tradition in the country if Azazel was to be believed.  
The reigning Queen had acquired hers like this.  
The usual procedure was to kill the alpha and free the omega, he wasn’t completely opposed to the thought…

“Stop it! I can see what you’re thinking.”

“I know you can, you are in my head. Have been since I asked you in.”

“I don’t need to be to see this. No, we’ve talked about it, this is not an option.”

Charles’ face was deadly serious as was his tone. 

“And I have listened. You know, you’re always in my heart as well.”

The omega coloured at that and squinted against the spring’s sun. Hair damp from perspiration and where he had gotten too close to the wet wood, skin still pale, but already reacting to the greater light exposure with a dust of freckles along the two prominent ones on his strong nose. Eyes that tried to stay severe but yielded under Erik’s affectionate gaze. 

Erik leaned in and kissed the lips starting to mirror his own smile. Long and deeply. He tasted of rye, spices, salt and Charles.

“I love you.”

Crestfallen Charles lay back on the blanket.

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters today since I'm going on holidays and won't be taking my laptop with me. Hope you like it :D


	10. Chapter 10

Charles looked down on his body. 

Or at least what he could see of it, the growing hump in the middle of it obscuring the view. After four months it stretched so far out he couldn’t spot his genitals anymore, nor his toes when he was standing straight.  
Maybe then it was a good thing that standing straight hurt. But so did sitting, lying down, crouching and hanging upside down (not that he had tried the last but he was convinced it would). 

No matter what position he took, at one point the thing in him, the baby, would stir and start moving around. Kicking, rolling, bouncing on his bladder or just simply draining the energy out of him. 

The year was at the brink of summer, usually his favourite season, however, he couldn’t appreciate it. His back cramped, his feet were swollen, his temper on a rollercoaster ride and he had never felt so ugly in his life before.  
Looking at this deformed human being he had become he didn’t wonder why Shaw refused to lay with him.  
Six months ago he would have rejoiced at that, now though, when he had learned that the man COULD be cautious and caring and he was constantly wet, it irked him to no end.

Erik was wonderful and, to be fair, indispensable, but a part of him wanted his real alpha to be there for him. Hank minutely catalogued his frustration, but not even the work on their projects could distract him long enough. 

He closed his robe again and looked from his tower out on the country where life was in its fullest. Bees buzzing between the last blooming trees while this year’s first harvest announced itself in the darkening grain. 

He loved this. 

Why couldn’t he bring the same love to the bustling life in him?  
At least in the last weeks there had been something he could grasp on a more rational level, something that let him hope. 

On the road up to the castle a group of riders was approaching. He shadowed his eyes against the midday sun while his other hand mindlessly caressed his belly. 

It was Shaw and his men returning. Erik. 

He collected his things quicker than he intended and rushed down to meet them in the court. They had been gone five days.  
One of Duke Stane’s prisoners, a former general, had escaped and since his family had been from the Edrin lands, the king’s and the royal princess’ closest advisor had urged Shaw to get hold of him. 

Judging by the smug smile on his mate’s face they had succeeded. 

“Ah, look who has deigned to greet us! My flabby sweet cheeks.” 

Shaw effortlessly slid down from his horse and slapped Charles on the arse with a dirty laugh. More quietly while studying his omega’s figure he said: 

“I see you’ve grown. Good, good. But leave some food for the servants, will you?” 

Charles just stared at him, speechless, then nodded duly and cast down his gaze. 

Erik, still on the back of his horse watched with a harsh look in his eyes until Logan nudged him to get the horses to the stable. 

After dinner they met in Charles’ little garden. He insisted on keeping it in shape and now needed the assistance of his personal guard. The sun was still an hour or so from setting, but the land already was dunked into a soft warm light. 

“You should have seen it! Everyone was there! And Duke Obadiah Stane! Can you believe that?” 

The alpha was so excited. 

“I stood just a few people further down the line from him! He talks to the king on a regular basis and he’s the future queen’s godfather! You should have seen his armour! I have never felt such alloys! Beautiful!” 

Was Charles supposed to smile at his friend’s exhilaration or worry about how easily the young alpha still was impressed by blatant displays of power and rank? He decided to smile. 

“He really must have hated the man, he chased him for a year and when he escaped he brought half the country to catch him again…”

“What did happen to the general?” 

“Hm? Oh, we hanged him. On a field just a little away from here. When they cut him from the tree Stane only kept his head, the rest they buried somewhere without a stone… I’m sorry I shouldn’t tell you this. Is your stomach doing better?”

Charles couldn’t help the flash of anger reaching up into his eyes.

“I’m fine. I just don’t understand why he had to make such a show of it. Wouldn’t it be enough to kill a man? Why did he have to invite ’half the country’ to look upon? Where does justice end and pure personal lust for revenge start?” 

“Charles, you don’t understand, the general was a traitor, things like these are necess-“ 

“Stop right there!” 

He wouldn’t keep his rage down anymore. As Erik reached out to him confused he swatted away the hand and seethed:

“Don’t dare touching me!” Then he stormed off while Erik looked on.

There weren’t many places he could go, so it was no wonder Erik found him in the library ten minutes later. 

“Charles, what did I…?”

“I’m sick and tired of being treated like a child! Especially by you!  
You think that I’m too naïve to understand the world outside, too sheltered to know how hard life can be. Well, I bloody know!!!”

Erik eyes grew wide and round again. Like this he looked more like a boy than a soldier. 

“I may have never fought a battle or fought for survival, but I know about cruelty.  
And injustice!  
Do you know what it feels like to be sold off because you’re an ‘inconvenience’?  
To be bred by someone you’ve known for a day?  
All you’ve ever wanted, all you ever hoped for to be taken from you and be replaced by something you wished would never happen?  
Without being asked once?!  
All the decisions made for you, without anyone even questioning if you’re alright with it?  
Hell, even without yourself questioning it!?  
Because this is what all omegas do, this is what everyone has to go through! You are a lucky one, your alpha is wealthy, you won’t have to worry about your children starving, so don’t complain, be thankful, this is the way how things are supposed to be…!  
It doesn’t change the fact that it feels like shit!” 

Charles spat out the last words. He heard the blood pounding in his ears, a tinge of guilt rousing underneath the wrath. There was no need to lash out like this on Erik. Erik, who had the least fault in Charles’ fate. 

Except that he had played the part Shaw had chosen for him very very effectively and no, no, he wouldn’t give in to this again. He had a right to be angry and he wanted to vent now! 

Erik studied him slowly, there was no pity in him, only concern, willingness to understand and this blinding affection he always had in his heart. 

“By ‘all you’ve ever wanted’ you mean a life in a monastery?”

“Yes! Seeing Hank again reminded me that his dreams used to be mine as well. I didn’t ask for the life as a noble man, I wanted something simple. Something that I could use. Not a complicated mess” his hands vaguely gesticulated at the library they were standing in “that would keep me trapped and powerless…” 

Charles slowly deflated, he sank down on the floor, leaning against a shelf. Erik prudently approached him.

“So you never wanted this?” he asked, carefully stroking his love’s belly. Almost matter-of-factly but he couldn’t hide the tint of sadness.

“I don’t know… I don’t know anymore.  
At first I couldn’t tell what was irking me, there was just something off, then you and Hank became more prominent and I started thinking for myself again. And realised that I never wanted to be like this. I never wanted a child.” 

Erik looked broken and Charles could feel the blame the alpha put upon himself. ‘Good’ a part of the omega sneered, but it wasn’t right. Erik had been one of the first people who had treated him decently. Better than decently in fact… He had to tell him. 

“In the past weeks something has changed. I can sense the baby. Not just in the way every omega can, and believe me there is enough! It is a very active little bugger! I mean I can sense it with my gift. It’s becoming a full-formed human. There is something independent inside of me that is having thoughts. And it loves me! It only knows warmth and comfort and happiness and I’m the one providing that.” 

Somehow Erik could sympathise with his unborn child. 

“I have no idea how to deal with this. It’s magnificent but at the same time I start forgetting what I’m looking for in life again and this freaks me out! Maybe that’s the way it should be, no goal, no lead up, just live life as it is… But I’m scared.” 

“I understand. I think everyone does…” 

With that Erik couldn’t resist any longer and hugged the man he considered his omega. And Charles let him. They stayed embraced on the floor like this for a long while, Charles breath growing even so that Erik thought he had fallen asleep, but the blue eyes were open, nose nuzzling Erik’s sweaty shirt. He petted the omega’s hair, revelling at how soft it felt underneath his blistered palms.

“You know if you came with me, no, let me speak, you could do all those things. I wouldn’t trap you. How could I? I wouldn’t be your real alpha. We’d stay together as equals. Like the prince whose reports you like so much.”

“Prince Anthony is different, Erik. He is of royal blood and Lord Rogers was far beneath him, even you must have noticed the distress their mating caused. It’s a weird situation and they never will be equals. It’s just that no one knows who ranks higher.”

“I’m far beneath you…”

Charles snorted. Finally he was back to smiling. But he got serious soon enough.

“Erik, you must accept this, I cannot go with you. I’m Shaw’s omega, there is no scenario that doesn’t end with you as a hunted criminal. Like the man you saw today. And I’m not letting this happen. Once more, I don’t want you to get hurt. Please allow me to protect you. I want that as much as you want to protect me.” 

Charles didn’t realise the meaning of his words immediately but the young alpha did and his eyes brightened.

“So what do you suggest we do?”

“Stay here. Together. Safe. We’ll figure something out when time comes. I can’t change the circumstances, I know I must bear them. I would appreciate it though if I had someone who would bear them with me.” 

Now Erik beamed, again Charles didn’t notice, he only leaned into the enthusiastic kiss. 

“I’m sorry I yelled at you…”

“I’m sorry that I’ve treated you like a child. You are stronger than anyone I’ve ever met before but you are also worth more to me than anyone has ever been before. I can’t stand the thought of any harm coming to you. I will try to keep it in check.”

Charles just looked at him. This time Charles noted the strange feeling inside of him, expanding at Erik’s words. As if on its own accord his body leaned in even closer and they kissed again. 

He felt queasy. What was going on? This was wrong. Very very wrong! He had to do something about it. 

At night in his and Shaw’s chamber, ashamed, his dignity screaming inside of him, he begged his mate to take him. This had to go away and the reassurance his real mate’s body gave him should be enough. Should have been enough. 

\----------------------------------------------------

Summer came fast and the heat incapacitated Charles even more. 

He couldn’t move long without his clothes sticking to him, despite the fact he wasn’t really wearing his clothes anymore but wide gowns.  
Nothing else would fit. He stayed in during the day, for the first time thankful for the thick castle walls that kept him cool. He only went out in the evening or the early hours of the morning. 

The court was in a rush, it was Shaw’s fiftieth birthday today and there was still so much that had to be done before the feast started. 

The guests had arrived and needed to be tended to. Most of them were Shaw’s friends and allies, high ranking members of the clergy from the monasteries around and a famous bard. 

All Charles wanted was to hide under the sheets of his bed; instead he had to guide an old omega abbess through the halls of their castle so she could decide where the wind spells would be of most use. While lecturing him on how an expecting father always should drink enough nettle tea and get enough rest. 

He would have never guessed. 

When he tried to convince her to sit down with him and have some tea too she started to go on at great length how she, because of her vocation, had never been able to enjoy the wonders of a pregnancy and motherhood. Charles, whose feet were too big for his sandals and who waddled more than he walked next to the babbling woman, barely resisted the urge to bang his head against the next wall. 

Just one day he told himself. 

In the afternoon a melee was scheduled. 

Before that, all the higher ranking guests gave the host their well-wishing in front of a stand which, thank the gods, was shadowed by a canopy.  
Charles had to sit at his mate’s side accepting the offerings directed at him and the congratulations on his state. Some of them seemed honest but some were just lecherous or even worse, half pity half schadenfreude. 

Duke Stryker was here, as the highest ranking member of the present nobility he took the place at Shaw’s left. 

He was one of the lecherous ones. 

One more reason why Charles had never liked him. 

The members of Shaw’s own household came forth. 

Logan courteous as ever spit out the root he had been chewing on mere seconds before he bowed down. Hank flustered to be standing between so many alphas, Emma clearly interested, Janos ready to fight her for him and Erik… 

Erik was wearing a new tunic, inconspicuous as all his others, except for a cornflower blue handkerchief stitched over his heart. Charles recognised it as one of his own. Erik had soaked it in vinegar and used it to cool Charles down only a few days ago. 

It was such a silly gesture, but the feeling that never left him regained control over his heart again. He flushed, at least now he could blame the heat. The baby bounced inside of him. 

“At your service, my lord. In the past, in this time and in whatever the future may bring.” 

He didn’t take his eyes of Charles for one second during his oath. 

There was so much warmth, so much love and devotion, Charles wanted to hug and kiss him in front of everyone attending. 

He couldn’t. 

He mustn’t even smile at the man. 

This was surprisingly easy when the explosion of emotions from his mate hit him. Completely calm on the outside Shaw’s grim fury washed over him with such force he physically recoiled. 

There the image of the ash in the field was again. But something was different. The sky was stormy and on a low branch a body was swinging in the wind. 

Erik’s body. 

This was why he had been so calm about it. Why he had never taken any offense in Erik’s obvious pining.  
He had planned it from the beginning. Erik hadn’t been chosen because he was the most naïve, he had been chosen because he was the newest addition to the court.  
The most expendable.  
As soon as the baby was confirmed to be an alpha Shaw would have Erik hanged outside the castle.  
The same tree they had used for Stane’s general. 

Reserved for traitors.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter of part 1. 
> 
> Extra warnings for bodily fluids and public humiliation.

Erik was nervous. His horse next to him felt his infectious unrest and scraped its hoof over the gravel on the road.  
Afar he could hear the noise of the on-going festivities, watery free beer was served and the whole county was getting slowly but surely drunk. 

He had just won the lesser sword tournament when Logan pulled him to the side and gave him Charles’ message. ‘Pack your things, get your horse, meet me by the bridge at ten.’ 

What was going on? 

Had someone noticed? 

The omega had paled entirely after he had sworn his oath, but it couldn’t have been from the handkerchief he was wearing. It didn’t smell the least bit like Charles; the vinegar had taken care of that.  
Only Erik knew where it had touched the man he loved, his freckled shoulders, his long shorn neck… 

Did it have anything to do with Shaw? His master had been suspiciously nice to him today, but then it was his birthday so he didn’t assume much. He still checked his opponents in the sword fights carefully. All unskilled farm boys. 

Could it be that Charles had finally decided to go with him? A bit rushed but the bubble of hope swelled in him nonetheless. 

It popped as soon as he saw the small, off-centre figure hurrying his way as fast as it could.  
Charles was in no condition to travel.

“Erik!”

The omega flung himself at him, burrowing his face in his chest, pressing their bodies together. 

“Erik, he’s going to kill you! I’ve seen it! Shaw is going to kill you if the baby is an alpha. You have to run!”

“What?”

“He knows how you feel about me! And he’s furious! He’ll hang you. He planned it from the beginning, you have to leave before it’s too late!”

Erik looked down on the man in his arms, sweaty, the skin flushed from the exertion of getting here on his own, the big blue eyes dark and pleading. 

“No.”

Erik wouldn’t leave. In the past twelve years he hadn’t known a place he belonged more. A place he wanted to be more. 

At Charles’ side. 

At home.

He loved the man more than anything else in his life, and if his life was the price he had to pay to have him so be it.  
He wouldn’t go without a fight though, if that was what Shaw believed. Alpha to alpha or the whole bunch at once if he had to. 

He knew he had no chance to win the last but he was not giving up Charles like this. Not even for a while. 

Charles saw all of it in his mind, all the desperate determination and the love burning so hot it hurt. 

Erik, so open for him like no one else before. 

There was no one who could bring him off this path to his own certain death. No one but Charles. 

He knew what he had to do. 

He kissed the young alpha one last time, pouring in all his bewildering emotions.

When they separated Erik’s smile was shaped by hope and gratefulness. 

“I love you.”

Carefully and slowly picking his words Charles said:

“I know.  
But I don’t love you. I never will. You say you love me but you don’t care what happens to me after your death.  
Probably nothing since Shaw will still be here for me.  
If you stay you’ll die, die for someone who wouldn’t do the same for you.  
This is not worth it.”

Charles stepped back. 

The first words had hurt, and hurt let doubt and fear trickle in easier than bright shining devotion. It was the tiniest bit; it easily would be dismissed and never sufficient in a normal conversation. But it was big enough for Charles to grab and pull. Nourish it quickly and let it grow, grow! 

“What you thought you had here was a lie. Nothing was real. You are better off anywhere else.  
In fact, never come back here. Forget me and everything about me.” 

Charles pushed and tore and dragged with all his power. He’d seen that it was working when the shocked look on Erik’s face turned unnaturally blank. Just a little more…

“Go! Go now!” The alpha got on his horse and started to cross the bridge slowly, Charles still moulding his mind. He didn’t know if he was strong enough, what would hold and for how long.  
He just hoped that it would be plenty to get Erik far away, safe, to protect him from his own stubbornness and pride.  
To protect him from Shaw. 

Erik already was out of sight and Charles had to bring up every ounce of concentration in his body to make sure he went further.  
When he finally was out of reach Charles realised that he had forgotten to breath. With the rush of air came fatigue, so bone deep like he had never felt it before. His legs gave way underneath him and he fainted.

“Charles? Charles! Wake up!” a gruff voice shouted into his face.

He was lying on the road, held up in Logan’s strong arms. 

“What happened? Are you alright?”

“Everything’s fine. I’m okay…”

Except that he wasn’t. He must have fallen on his back because there was a dull pain in the small of it. Only when it spread forward and his stomach pulled tight like a fist he realised what was really going on. 

The baby was coming. 

 

“No, please, please let me stay here!”

“Stop embarrassing me! This is your one moment, you better appreciate it!”

Charles had spent the night in the sick quarters under the constant surveillance of Hank while the rest of the court had dozed off their drunkenness.  
But the contractions had started to come fast and tradition required that a noble omega gave birth in front of the court.  
It was considered a high honour.  
Charles was too weak to resist Shaw and Victor hauling him into the great hall where the majority of Shaw’s birthday party already had gathered. 

Now he was squatting on the floor, held up by Logan on a chair behind him, while half the kingdom looked upon. There was so much disgust and perverse amusement in the faces around him and since most of them were alphas he felt the waves of lust too.  
Who could be aroused by that?! 

After one and a half hour he was a mere potato sack hanging onto Logan, naked and exposed for everyone to see, only understanding half of the commands Hank, who was kneeling before him, gave. The monk had gone completely methodical and appeared as if he’d helped hundreds of babies into this world when in fact this was the first time he led the procedure.  
For a while Charles had been able to feed on his serenity, but now he was screaming in pain and frustration over his humiliation. 

He had pissed himself, droplets of blood from where he was tearing dripped into the pool of slimy liquid underneath him and his gasps for air had turned into blubbering noises from all the snot in his nose. 

Someone was wiping it away whispering soothing words to him. The wet-nurse from the village. When Charles had been told that they had found a widow about to wean her omega son he had expected a stout woman in her thirties. Not a skinny brown-haired girl roughly the same age as him.  
She had agreed to assist Hank and now tried to shield Charles from the views as well as she could. Her mind was full of compassion, not pity, no disgust. 

“Just a little more.” 

Logan grunted behind him. He was exhausted too, but no other alpha would take his seat. 

Erik. 

Erik would have. 

The tears welled up in his eyes with a new spike in his persistent agony. He would not cry. Not before all of these people! 

“You’re almost done, take a deep breath and let it go.” 

There was something else in the swirl of emotions around him. Out of a constant hum of confusion came panic, loud and crystal clear like a beacon.  
The baby.  
He wasn’t the only one suffering in this, there was another mind much more frightened and distressed than he was.

He pushed, ignoring the ache, the spiteful snickers, the revulsion and focused on this one task, ending the whole torment for him and his child. 

“Here we go!”

There was a flash of incredible pain and the feeling of Hank drawing something from him with an unreal sound. He let out a gurgled cry, Logan clasped him up closer and he fought against the blackness before his eyes. 

People leaned in and withdrew with laughter when a surprisingly powerful wailing started to fill the hall. The red twitching bundle in Hank’s arms was tiny and smeared with goo but breathed on its own, blaring out everything Charles felt too in its strong little voice. 

Her voice. 

It was a girl and after Hank had brought her up to Charles’ astonished face for a short while, he cleaned her, leaving no traces of Charles’ misguiding fluids.  
A short sniff from him and the attending priest confirmed it. She was an alpha. 

The whole court burst out in triumph. An heir had been born! Those tedious two hours hadn’t been for nothing! 

Shaw was beaming and prepared to hold his viscountess.  
Charles’ head rolled back unto the wet-nurse’s lap. She had wedged her knees under his upper body so he could watch on after they’d laid him out on the linen on the floor. Logan brought some more linen to cover him. 

“Not yours” he murmured when he closed his eyes. 

He had done the right thing. The baby, his daughter, was an alpha and Erik was away and safe. The tears that all of a sudden started to run down his cheeks came from exhaustion. 

Nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is interested more deeply in how things work in this verse, I explained some of it in the the comments on this chapter.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember that as fluffy as this fic it is, it does have a warning for Graphic Depictions of Violence.
> 
> While I'm not exactly sure about 'graphic' (I don't do gore) there will be bloodshed and minor character deaths (some in triggersome circumstances) in the following chapters.

Erik ran his finger along the dented line of his sword.  
The steel vibrated, filling his flesh and bones with the familiar whirr that echoed in his chainmail. Up and down his body till he cornered it and pushed it back into his arm and digits, eyes closed in concentration.  
Slowly the metal began to undulate, then, with what was like a sigh to Erik, it unbent. Until the imperfections were gone and the blade was sharp again.  
The noise died down to a pleasant little whisper and he looked at his work satisfied. 

Erik loved the rush this gave him, so much more gratifying then the adrenaline pumping through him in battle. It was a good way to come down.  
Forget the sounds and smells, the torn bodies, their fear and his own. It had been three of them today, three that had wished him in their place. 

And a fourth was waiting. 

He got up and walked over to his washing bowl. Darwin had exchanged the brown slush for fresh water and he soaked his permanently dirty nails in it, splashing some on his face. He looked around his tent for his belt when a scratch at the flap announced a visitor.

“Come in.”

“We would be ready then, sir.” 

Raven. 

She too had washed the mud and the blood from her face and now heavily smelled like the omega she had picked up three camps ago. A dancer who earned her bread in the beds of soldiers. But the two women seemed to have taken a shine to each other and Angel gladly travelled with them, always waiting impatiently for Raven to come back. 

Everyone had their way of how to deal with it. 

“Good. I’ll be there in a little while.” 

She nodded and left. 

Erik couldn’t believe they had come to this point. It was a big, maybe decisive step in the war that had consumed the country in the past five years.  
With High Constable Coulson taking Albra, Helofsh, Westchester and Darby in the East, their victory today could be the deadly blow to Duke Obadiah Stane’s remaining forces.  
But he wouldn’t get his hopes up too high. Things were ever changing in this conflict. 

Less than six years ago a devastating plague had taken the royal princess, her omega and her child, leaving the country without an heir. King Howard followed his daughter only months later and the fight over the succession started. 

Politically at first. 

As the dead king’s closest advisor, god-father to the deceased heiress and one of the wealthiest and most powerful dukes in the country, Stane had a valid claim to the throne.

But there still was King Howard’s omega son, Anthony Stark, mated to an insignificant earl from the west. He had born two children that secured the line and quite a few lords sustained his, or at least his mate’s, Lord Rogers’, entitlement. 

Erik couldn’t have cared less about the lords and their disputes. 

After he had found himself tossed out in the woods he wandered the land aimlessly.  
Komoloska was out of question. A dream he had dreamed up for someone who didn’t want it. 

When he almost resorted to his old lifestyle of stealing and hiding, he ran across an old friend. Together with Darwin he formed a small trade and moved towards the capital. 

They offered protection to travellers on the great roads, guarding their possessions and omegas from vagabonds.  
Soon other alphas, kids like Raven, joined them and while the business took a while till it got off the ground, they could afford a small house in the city as their base after three years. 

However, when the plague hit all the roads were closed and he and his friends were without contracts. Instead they saw themselves confronted with a growing number of mouths to feed. Some of the alphas had omegas, families with them. Some brought orphaned brothers and sisters.  
Some seemed to pick up random people in the streets and tell them that Erik Lensherr would feed them, he complained to Darwin one day. 

Darwin just laughed.

“Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it?” 

and helped him unload a cart of new necessary furniture for their house without a single word of protest, ignoring the brooding scowl on Erik’s face.

When the two political parties decided that there was no compromise to be found and declared war onto each other, a new way of making money presented itself.  
He was the leader of a team of able-bodied, trained alphas who were more than willing to fight for whoever paid them. Lord Rogers just was the first to call on them. 

Erik was convinced that it didn’t matter who took the throne. It wouldn’t change anything for people like him.  
Shaw might fight for Stane, but there always would be men like him, men much worse even, no matter who officially ruled. 

The longer the war lasted, however, the more he found himself in true favour of Rogers. The man listened to his omega. A very intelligent omega who’s strategies had helped them to hold positions for four years, even if they were largely outnumbered and had less financial resources. 

The big turn of the tables had come last autumn when King Essex decided to abuse the weakened state of the neighbouring country and attacked with his troops from Kalgante. This upset the Romanov queen who had kept neutral thus far but wouldn’t stand the man she had disputed over her omega with, to take new dukedoms as he liked.  
The much better accustomed and equipped Romanov army thrashed Essex’ soldiers when winter came, killing the king himself in a devastating battle. 

His remaining armed forces were scattered, quite a few disinclined to go back to the uncertain future of their home. They decided to follow a proficient young sergeant who led mercenary troops in Rogers’ name and spoke their tongue fluently.  
So it came that Sergeant Erik Lensherr was the commander of a platoon much bigger than any lieutenant’s. 

And his shoulders were loaded with the same responsibilities as any officers’. 

He sheathed his sword and walked out of his tent.  
On the way to the central square of the camp he saw Angel sharpening one of Raven’s daggers, smiling at him encouragingly. She reminded him of the omega who had given him the golden necklace he wore, the rich and deep hum feeding him the confidence he needed.  
They had the same long, beautiful dark hair and skin, albeit he was a man. The same small but compact frame with greater strength than the first look would let anyone assume. A son of a goldsmith with a penchant for warriors he would have been ideal. The boy was enamoured with him, Erik liked his cheekiness as well as his gorgeous body, and he had meant a secure career for the future, a bed that would always be warm. 

In the end it wasn’t enough, not for him and not for the boy who chose one of Erik’s soldiers from Kalgante instead. The man had become one of his best with the promise of a family ahead and Erik did not begrudge him of his happiness. 

This was what all this was about.  
Not some senseless row over successions. 

Allowing the people he cared for to live, to see Agron raise his child, to let Angel take Raven to the wineries of her home, let them have peace. But there had difficult steps to be taken on that way, obstacles to be overcome. 

His whole platoon had gathered. 

They all were staring at one man who was held by Raven.  
Field Marshall Stryker had lost a lot of weight since Erik had seen him the last time. The man had become haggard over his son’s death, the war taking a toll on every one of them. 

Still a menace until Lord Banner had split his company in their last confrontation, hunting one half in the other direction.  
This morning, Erik’s soldiers had fallen into the back of the rest of Stryker’s surprised squads. They made short shrift of them; one of Raven’s arrows felled the Marshall off his horse early.  
He still was bleeding from the wound as Erik could tell by the red stain seeping through the bandages under his tunic. 

His hands were tied on the back, a small piece of rope linking them to a noose around his neck, constricting him even further in his movements. Erik wished that he had been gagged too, because what he spewed wasn’t worth the air it he used. 

“Ah, here he is. The farm boy who fancies himself a marshal. You feel proud now? You’ve got me, what you’re going to do? Harness me in front of a plough?” He tried to gesture at his shackles and cackled, failing to hide his terror.  
Lord Rogers often was seen as too soft, but his orders on what to do with Stryker had been very clear and adamant. 

Execute on capture. 

“Lord Stryker, you are guilty of supporting the traitor Obadiah Stane in his on-going refusal to recognise Lord Stephen Rogers as the rightful king. You know that this crime is punished by death. Do you wish to atone by swearing your loyalty to His lawful Majesty now?”

Another shrill laugh from the other man. 

“Swear my… You want me to beg for forgiveness, that’s what this is!” 

“If you think so please do. It won’t change the sentence though.”

Erik knew that Stryker would never give in; there was no real reason to bother him with protocol or be polite. Still.

Stryker sighed, exasperation mixing in. 

“I will never bow to this little fool who thinks just because he fucks that pushy bitch he’s entitled to anything. He’ll curse the day he crawled out his mother’s hole. You all know nothing about power and politics. Foreigners, mercenaries and farmers.” 

He raised his voice.

“Has anyone of you ever held a sword before you took his silver? Real loyalty, real power comes from the blood, through class and breed, through connections and mutual interest. What a king Rogers must be if he shares any interests with you. You were dumb peasants when you were born and you’ll die dumb peasants. And if you keep following that bastard it will be sooner than you think.”

Erik’s mouth widened into a grin, showing many teeth and no humour.

“Yet we defeated you. And if it was going according to these ‘dumb peasants’ you’d be strung up a tree to struggle until you’re purple. You can thank me that I have enough ‘class’ to respect yours.” 

Briefly Erik wondered if Stryker recognised him, but no. Erik barley could remember him sitting under the canopy that day either. 

Not for the same reasons though. 

He inhaled sharply.

“Darwin.” 

His friend grabbed Stryker by his arms and dragged him forward. Then pushed him to his knees, one foot on his lower back to keep him down. The rope tightened. 

“Do you have any last words? Of significance I mean?”

“Go to hell.” 

Darwin and Erik exchanged looks over the man below them.

“After you, please.” 

He looked down at Stryker stretching out his neck in defiant pride but stinking of fear all the same. The crowd had gone completely still. 

His sword wasn’t made for this. Erik was a warrior, not a hangman. There was an unarmed man cowering before him.  
An unarmed man who’d slay any of them without the bat of an eyelid. Who had led more people to their death than present. 

Erik raised his sword with both hands, breath steady, and brought it down fast again. There was a dull sound, a spray of blood and Field Marshall William Stryker’s headless body fell forward. 

The sun was setting when Alexander came back. A sticky little red puddle was the only thing left on the central square. 

“So I missed the good part again? Damn my luck!”

He slid down from his horse. Officially Summers was Erik’s second in command, one of the few nobles in his ranks. But as the fifth alpha born to an already poor baron his outlook on inheriting anything were less than meagre.  
Not that he would ever have any children that had to worry about their inheritance. 

Darwin rushed towards him, tangling him in a kiss. Like most people Erik saw nothing offensive in two alphas lying with each other. He could understand the appeal of playing the omega, he enjoyed it himself from time to time. What was beyond him although was how anyone could stand the stench of another alpha in such particular situations.  
But he wasn’t the one to judge his friend’s choices. 

“I get it, you haven’t seen each other in 9 hours, it must be horrible. There still are things I’d love to know.”

Alexander wasn’t just his immediate subordinate he was also the best horseman. He’d gone back to Rogers’ basecamp for new orders. The blond young man separated from his lover with an obscenely wet sound. 

“Of course. Sir.” 

Erik did not like how cocky he had become since Darwin told him that Erik basically was his brother in-law now. 

“Stand to attention if you speak to me” he growled at Alex, causing him to blanch but to straighten instantly as well. 

Better.

“Rogers is going to take Stane head on, sir. Coulson and Banner are going through the north cutting off his supplies. We’re to neutralise any possible retreats and the last support he has in the west.”

Alex’s next words closed like a vise around Erik’s chest.

“Our orders are to attack and conquer Edrin Castle. Defeat Sebastian Shaw.”


	13. Chapter 13

Charles turned under his sheets. It was a cold summer and he welcomed the warmth of his bed in the damp early hours of the day.  
His knees bumped into a little human rolled up like a ball next to him. At almost eight Annie was too old to crawl into her dad’s bed at night, but she still did it every time she had a nightmare.  
Carefully he swiped a strand of dark brown hair out of her half-hidden face.

“Wake up, love.”

She stayed calm but Charles could sense her waking up, trying really hard not to move. He smiled.

“I can tell that you’re awake, you know?”

“Just five more minutes.”

He stroked the wild locks for a while.

“I’ve already given you fifteen minutes. It’s time to get up now.”

The big blue eyes, same as Charles’, blinked open and his daughter let out a world-weary sigh. Charles’s smile grew into a laugh. 

Annie still was tired when they came down into the great hall and Peter rushed towards them. 

“Don’t run with the bowls in your hands” Moira’s voice called after her son. 

The little omega slowed marginally before crowing 

“Morning! Breakfast?” 

Annie looked at the porridge that was heading for her and her grumpy mood lightened. 

“Mmmh, I love pears!” 

“I know. I helped preparing it!” 

“You poured so much sugar in that we’ll have to eat it unsweetened for the next week, love.”

The children’s face scrunched up in disgust. 

“I thought it was a good idea…”

“You did well” Annie whispered back, patting his shoulder. 

Charles went up to Moira hugging her for a second. He looked at the children Hank was assigning to their tables in the hall. 

“How many today?”

“Not more than twelve.”

Charles nodded.

“Maybe it’s because harvest is getting close.” 

Moira gave him an unconvincing half smile. Both knew that their students weren’t staying away because of the season. The parents of the village indeed were more inclined to send their children to a warm breakfast and some hours of lecturing during the wintery days, when they weren’t needed on any fields, but nowadays it was impending violence that downsized their classes. 

Not much information came through to their part of the country but even the most oblivious farmers knew that it didn’t look good for Stane’s army. It was only a matter of time till Edrin Castle would be under attack and quite a few people started to regard the cheap straw-and-lime walls of their strategically unimportant houses as safer than the castle’s fortifications. 

“Maybe.” 

Charles didn’t know what he would do without her.  
In the beginning he had watched her breastfeed the viscountess with gratefulness but also a weird pinch of envy. This and his other concerns over the new person in his household however, had fallen when she showed him how to hold the flimsy body correctly, lacking any sense of superiority.  
She always got up at night without a single word of complaint and sat with Charles, who could calm the baby down the quickest, till the wee hours.  
She helped him with all the other tasks too. Well-appointed with unshakeable pragmatism and a gift for persuasion she made Charles, who had been so reluctant at first, change his daughters diapers, clean her and feed her like hardly any other noble omega would do.

And Charles quickly learned how important this was to him. 

There was a new human life. To be formed from scratch, to be stimulated and supported, to be kept from negative influences and damage.  
A life whose continuous simple joy rose whenever it heard his voice and erupted into fits of laughter when he blew raspberries on its little round stomach.  
It was fascinating to see how unmarred and clear her emotions were, elation whenever the rain was splashing against the windows, anger at the quacking geese which woke her and the sense of ultimate security whenever she was in Charles’ arms. And with every week it became easier to take her in them.

Like all children his daughter had an incredibly open mind, soaking up every bit of information offered and Charles saw it as his very pleasant duty to offer it in abundance.  
It had taken him less than a week after he started schooling her to decide that he would invite the children of the peasants too.  
With Moira and Hank at his side he built a school in his castle. After some hesitation the children started to come. At first because of the promise of free food, Charles’ agricultural innovations kept the province from suffering the worst repercussions of the war, but who’d say no to something they didn’t have to pay for? Then people began to see the advantages of having someone who was able to read and write in the family.  
Shaw was gone most of the time fighting his battles and didn’t object. 

Not that he really dared to. 

It had happened after King Howard’s funeral. The nobles of the country met to discuss the succession and after three days Shaw left in rage. Charles, who had watched upon from the balcony reserved for consorts and servants rushed after him. 

“You can’t just leave like that! They’re going to fight each other, please, there has to be a peaceful solution! Please, go back in there.”

His mate just stared at him, then at the people watching them, snickering in the background of the king’s palace’s halls. His face darkened as he grabbed Charles’ arm and dragged him away. In their quarters he shoved him to the ground.

“You will not tell me what to do! Don’t you ever speak to me like that again! This is none of your concern, you hear me?” 

“Forgive me, but I was hoping that you’d find a compromise.”

“The only compromise we’ll agree to is if this pompous little fool learns how to behave-”

“But Anthony Stark is a royal, Lord Rogers does have a claim-“

“Shut up!”

Shaw’s hand came out of nowhere. He hadn’t hit Charles since he tried to resist during the early nights.

“That’s the problem with you and your friend Rogers; you don’t know your place. When I took you off the fraud your stepfather is, he assured me that you would be docile and loyal. You’re supposed to be on my side, to support me. Instead you continue to publically disrespect me. Ever since that useless coward fucked a child into you, you think you’re something special. But you’re”

Charles snapped.  
He hit Shaw back.  
It wasn’t more than a slap, weak in comparison to Shaw’s blow, but it stung and pain had always been one of the easiest things for Charles to grab.  
He pulled cruelly and Shaw felt it ten times as hard, like second hit in his mind.  
Shaw’s face paled and he gaped at him in incomprehension. Charles seethed. He had just shown a dangerous man exactly how special he was and he didn’t care.  
Erik was not a coward.  
Charles glared at his mate until the other man left the room, a maelstrom of dark emotions rising in him. He let himself fall down on the bed, exhaling and carefully touching his split lip.  
He knew what he had to quell in his mate from now on.

 

“Here you go.”

“Thanks!” 

Hank took the cup of milk and porridge. There weren’t many servants left and everyone was used to the master of the house serving breakfast. They were a small group of 16 people keeping the castle together not counting the new guards Shaw had spared from his company.  
The old gang had vanished.  
Emma had been the first. She found herself a rich widowed omega with a small barony as a dowry. Her ability to keep out of the conflict was remarkable, always supporting both sides and none at the same time.  
Victor and Janos had died in battle. Soon after his friend’s death Azazel had disappeared without further notice.  
Erik was gone too.  
Charles had never heard from him again and he didn’t know if this should make him glad or not. In his imagination Erik was alive and had made it to Komoloska where he lived a good life. An omega at his side with a bunch of children running around.  
The last part he didn’t think about in too much detail, it hurt too much, even if he had no right to be hurt by it.  
Essentially what he hoped for was that Erik was safe, away from the war that had taken too many innocent lives and scarred one person Charles cared for too many.

“Tell the little grasshoppers to leave something for me.”

Logan limped down the stairs, voice gruff as always.  
He was still here.  
Two years ago he’d miraculously survived a grave wound that rendered his left leg useless. He’d taken over as master of arms, trainer and personal guard of the little heiress. 

“There’s more than enough, you glutton. You have to watch your weight; you can’t burden your leg too much.”

Hank had left the order after delivering the baby, settled as his lord’s private physician and, subsequently, as the whole areas practitioner. He bloomed in the activity and took it very seriously. 

“Whatever the doc says.” 

Logan smirked at Charles who got him a large bowl anyway. 

After finishing breakfast Hank and Charles started their writing and maths classes with the more or less attentive students. In the afternoon Logan took some of them to train with Annie.  
Moira was sitting on a grass covered wall watching and sowing clothes with a maid when Charles joined them, leaving their projects in Hank’s responsibility. She was wearing the hat the young alpha from the village had given her in his fruitless attempts of courting her. 

“Could you tear off the sleeves of this one, please? I can’t get through the fabric.”

“Sure. I see that Sean’s gifts are more welcome than his presence.”

“Stop Charles. You know that I think he’s a sweet boy… (boy being the operative word here) Besides, his family would never approve.” 

Moira had resisted mating for a relatively long time before she had been set up with an older tradeswoman who she met on the day of the ceremony. The alpha impregnated her and died 2 months later on the road, leaving Moira with child and the stigma of being bad luck.  
She also had worked for her own money while being unmated which always was seen as something eccentric and worse, dirty.  
No respectable family would want to take her in. 

“Their younger generation obviously has better judgement and it’s their bloody loss.” 

She snorted and smiled at him.

“You flirting with your girl again?”

“For the 15.000th time Logan, it’s not like that.” Charles sighed while Moira just rolled her eyes in exasperation. 

“I don’t know, telling her that she’s prettier than all the other girls in that stinker of a village, sorry Betty, you’re the queen of my heart you know that, doing all strong and alpha-y things…”

Logan grinned and Betty, the old maid, giggled. 

They should have never told him that they liked to spend their heats together if they coincided and Shaw was away. It was practical and a relief for both of them. Him finding release with someone he didn’t have to submit to and her spending the days with someone who couldn’t bind her, yet could match her energy and ferocity, surpass it even, and wouldn’t judge her afterwards.  
They weren’t physically attracted to each other outside of heat, but the notion of two omegas panting and groaning in unison while being intertwined with each other was enough to send every alpha’s mind on a lewd journey. 

“What are you talking about?”

Annie and Peter had stopped their training, which in their case consisted more of trying to poke the other with the wooden swords than actual technique, to ask the adults what they were up to. 

“We’re talking about the things you will do when you’re grown-up and can’t stop falling onto each other. Loads of naked kissing.” Moira cackled. 

Charles shook his head chidingly at her but couldn’t help the laugh at the ‘eeeeew’ and their children’s revolted faces. 

Later Charles would pick up the sword himself to train with Logan a little.  
Annie and Peter were in the corner of his eye while they played on the castle walls. Peter had grumbled that he always had to be the one who got rescued, so now Annie sat on top of the old outlook while pretending to be frightened by a dangerous dragon (an old dog in the courtyard). Suddenly she dropped the sobbing and jerked her head back. 

“Someone is coming up the road.”

Charles tensed as did Logan.

“It’s father! Father is back.” 

Shaw’s troops were much smaller than the last time Charles had seen them. A few must have gone with Stane, the others…  
They still filled the courtyard in their rattling armour and after some initial protest Annie and Peter were happy that they were sent to their rooms.  
The soldiers were unpleasant to begin with, but in an even worse mood now that they had fled the open field to hide out in a castle. They were preparing for a siege and didn’t have the nerve for two curious children. 

Charles saw Shaw dismounting and approached him. He tried to breathe through his mouth but the smell of his mate who he hadn’t seen in over two months caught him nonetheless.  
Everything in him screamed to touch him, to offer himself and to reassure the bond. But he kept his body upright. There hadn’t been much touching between them outside of Charles’ heat, not since the night in the royal palace and he wouldn’t change that now. Soon the lustful glimmer in Shaw’s eyes gave way to his usual icy disdain.  
The thought that his mate was a witch had wondrously disappeared from his mind but the constant glow of hatred Charles couldn’t suppress.  
In fact he didn’t want to. Shaw had learned his lesson that Charles wasn’t something to be ordered around anymore and this was his way of not forgetting it.  
The omega ignored the pheromones and gritted out:

“How long till they’re here?”

Shaw stared at him, irate, close to fuming. He was even more enraged than usual but Charles couldn’t comprehend why. 

“Three days, maximum.” 

Then he stormed off in another direction bellowing orders at his men.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little delayed due to holiday stress :). I know that Moira has a canon son but where I'm from you only name your child 'Kevin' if you do not like it very much. And Proteus just sounded strange. So he became Peter XD


	14. Chapter 14

“Two days! Two days faster and we would have caught the bastard!” 

Raven kicked her helmet on the floor. 

“Relax, he’s trapped, he’s not going anywhere. We attack, kill a few of them and BAM! the castle is ours.” 

Alex wasn’t even the slightest bit concerned by his pacing friend.

“And how exactly are we going to do that? Do you plan to bang your numb skull against the walls until they give up? We’re not equipped for a quick overtake. We don’t have any machines. This could take months!”

“My head is not numb! We just storm the thing like we did-“

“Then you can storm in the first line! Have you even seen the thing? We’ll die, you moron!”

“Take that back, I swear I’ll-“

“Enough!”

Erik’s voice cut through the bickering.

“Raven is right, we can’t take the castle upfront. We’ll wait. Keep Shaw here, away from the battles, cut the support and deny Stane his retreat, as we have been told to.”

“But sir, waiting is madness! We should kill that vermin fast and re-join Coulson for the battles that people will actually remember!”

Erik just snorted.

“Right. Don’t ever think that I do not want to see this man dead, believe me, I do. But I won’t risk my company so you can be off chasing your laurels.”

“But sir,-“

“I’ve said it’s enough! It’s decided, we’ve cornered Shaw and we make sure he stays there.”

Erik got up from his seat and left the tent. Outside his men were building a new camp. He took a deep breath and strode down to the river.   
Everything was familiar. He hadn’t been here for almost a decade but nothing had changed. He recognised the fields and hills and streams like it had been yesterday.   
Almost a decade of trying to get away from this, of trying to forget and now everything rushed back, he couldn’t help it. 

Parts of him did want to follow Alex’ advice. Throw himself at the castle, trash this place and set everything on fire till it finally was gone. Another part just wanted to keep running. For years he had put off coming back, didn’t face his demons. Now that he was forced to be here, he realised what a coward he had been and the embarrassment made matters even worse.

“Are you alright?”

Darwin had appeared behind him. 

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

The other man watched him stabbing some stains of moss at the riverbed. 

“Well, it’s a good thing that you don’t let personal feelings cloud your strategy.”

There was an unspoken question in it that annoyed Erik.

“What is this supposed to mean?”

“Look, my brother, I know that you’ve worked for Shaw before you reappeared eight years ago. I also know that you were a changed man. I’ve never asked what happened here and you don’t have to tell me now, but whatever it is, don’t let it get too close to you. You have to keep your head clear.” 

“Do I look as if my head wasn’t clear? Did I not just tell your airhead of a boyfriend that his idea was utter suicide? Do you want me to get us all killed? Are you really this much under his thumb?” 

There was no provocation in the world that could take Darwin’s calm, especially not one that was so easy to see through. 

“This is not about Alex. This is about you. Any row you have or had with Sebastian Shaw, this is neither the place nor time to be taken over by it, you understand?” 

Erik sighed. 

“I do not have a row with Sebastian Shaw.” No, he was an irritation, not the main problem.  
“I will keep it together, I promise.”

“Good. And just so you know, I think Alex’ ‘plan’ is ridiculous too. But waiting isn’t an ideal solution, especially if we’re needed somewhere else.”

“Then tell me how we”

Noises from the camp stopped him mid-sentence. The two sprinted back to find his soldiers encircling a group of young villagers.

“What’s going on?”

“They came up the road. This one says he wants to talk to you.”

Raven pointed at a red-headed boy in the front.

“Who are you, what do want?”

The boy stopped eyeing the lance directed as his chest and focused on Erik.

“My name is Cassidy, sir. I am the shoemaker’s son. We’re from Edrin village and the farms around, we saw you marching up here and wanted to help.”

“Help with what?”

“Bring down Sebastian Shaw.”

“Sir, they could be spies.”

Erik looked at the ragtag bunch in front of him. There were about 35 of them. Some had heavy old swords, some axes for chopping wood, wagon chains, butcher’s knives and everything else the folk used to defend themselves but wasn’t very useful in combat. If they were spies they did a great job at appearing incompetent.   
And apparently not all of them were alphas. There was a small group of omegas huddled alongside, some of them the size of plough horses, but still.

“This is a war, not a child’s game. Go home before you get yourself injured.”

“We’re not children and we know that this isn’t a game.”

The boy straightened up to his full height, which wasn’t unimpressive, but at the same time defiantly puffed out his slim chest in a way that made it painfully obvious how shakily he was balancing on the brink to adulthood. 

“Sebastian Shaw has broken his promise. He swore to protect us; instead he led us into a war he’s now losing. He took our brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers. We are the people who fill his purse, his corn chambers and keep his lands arable. We should be able to decide when he has to go.”

There was an agreeing murmur among his young friends. The familiarity of the fanciful ideology dazed Erik. Could the boy have come up it with it himself? He doubted it. 

“And we’ve decided that the time is now. We want this to end. And we know how to end it.”

Erik’s face got serious and the boy smiled.

“I see I have your attention now. There is a way to bring down the castle without a siege, we will tell and help you under one condition.”

“And which condition would that be?”

“That you don’t harm Master Charles. He’s Shaw’s consort and he has always looked out for us.”

Erik froze at last. The name he’d dreaded to hear since he crossed the border.

“And don’t harm Miss Moira” Cassidy added hastily, earning groans from some of his companions. 

“What? She’s important too! And Doc McCoy!”

So Hank was still here. Erik gathered his wits in the cheerful mood Cassidy’s antics had caused. 

“Alright. I’ll listen to you. After you.”

Erik opened the flap of his tent to let the boy in. His eyes grew wide on the inside.

“I’ve never been in a real officers tent, my brother was just a private, he got killed two years ago, is this from Kalgante?” 

“How do you plan to bring down Edrin Castle?”

“Promise me first!”

Erik just glared at him.

“Right, right. There is a small cellar door at the foot of the tower. Before Shaw was gone most of the time, and Master Charles just let everyone enter through the front, food was given out there. It’s overgrown now, but we’ve checked last night, it still works and is still open. We could enter through it, open the gates and then take the castle.”

The door. Erik remembered it. He hadn’t thought that it was a possibility. When he had left it was clearly visible and certainly not forgotten. But what if the boy was right? There was a way in. There was a way in!   
Erik made sure his expression stayed stony as ever. 

“And what lets you think that there is a we?” 

The boy’s face fell.

“I told you the way! Besides, I know mine around in the castle. I took classes there, I can get you past the guards.” He looked hurt but also proud of himself. 

“I know my way around the castle too.” 

Cassidy gawked at him, then he said:

“I recognise you! You’re one of the guys that used to work for Shaw. The one that won the sword tournament during Shaw’s big birthday celebrations! Man, you just disappeared after that. They were looking for you all over the lands; my mum surely still has your wanted flier somewhere in her pile. What happened to you?”

Erik just glared again. It was a very effective way to shut the boy up.

Cassidy took a deep breath and mustered all his courage.

“Will you follow our instruction and get rid of Sebastian Shaw for us. Will you keep the promise we asked of you?

Erik sighed. The boy was an idiot, not only for putting his confidences in him. But unfortunately his plan was the best he’d heard. They would need preparations but if it worked, Edrin Castle would fall the next morning. The realisation felt like something heavy pressing in on him. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

The castle was quiet, dawn slowly crawling in, when Charles sneaked out to his chamber. He didn’t share one with Shaw anymore, he’d moved to a certain other one in the tower instead.   
Usually he liked it up here but it was a long way from the room close to the kitchen where Shaw had kept them the past two days. The children were antsy and anxious, couldn’t stand being stuck in one place too long and Charles understood their turmoil all too well. But it was the safest place, hidden in the walls the deepest. It alone wouldn’t protect them during a successful attack though.   
Charles had gathered from the soldiers that the fall of Edrin Castle would significantly endanger Stane’s campaign. As much as he politically supported this outcome, finally an end to the war, he couldn’t bear thinking of the personal consequences. 

His mate would be hanged for treason, he himself would be thrown to the soldiers and Annie… It was an open secret what happened to too many alpha children of traitors. 

Not while there was a breath left in him. 

He found his sword and checked the blade. His powers had grown in the past few years, an advantage of having to keep tab on children running around the castle, but he couldn’t fend off an assailant quickly enough. Not someone with an unfamiliar mind.   
This was why he asked Logan to show him how to use a weapon. And if he had to make a guard fall asleep and sneak out during the night to get his own because his mate had just scoffed at the suggestion to arm an omega, he would do it without a flinch. 

The horizon turned a lighter blue when he heard a strange noise from the courtyard. He let his powers extend and was baffled to find Sean in the castle. What was he doing here? There were other people as well, people he didn’t know and suddenly with a noise like a giant flock of birds taking off, even more started to flood into the castle. The gates were open! Then he felt him. Erik, Erik was here.

\-----------------------------------------------------

The boy was right, the door was open and Erik and six others could slip into the castle unseen without any difficulty.   
The first few metres were easy too, the halls under the kitchen unguarded, but getting into the courtyard would be tricky. The best way was to pretend they belonged. Just a group of soldiers walking in the early hours of the day. 

He regretted his decision to take Sean with him when he saw how nervous the boy was, his jaws actually clattering, making treacherous sounds. This was very risky and he should have made peace with the very high likelihood of losing his head before he’d insisted on coming.   
But the soldiers were deep asleep, exhausted from being hunted over the lands and preparing for a siege that wouldn’t happen. They got to the gates undisturbed. And when one of the watches became suspicious Raven and her dagger were quicker than his voice. 

They had to hurry. Opening the gates wasn’t the problem. Keeping them open long enough so Darwin could lead the rest of their company from the smell and sound dampening woods into the castle would be more challenging.   
He saw their signal and noticed the guards on duty realising something was going on, but his men were swift. The first ones were there before anyone in the castle tried to close gates again and it became much easier to defend the bottle neck with more men. 

Shaw’s soldiers were just waking up, disorientated and couldn’t tell the shadowy figures apart in the dim light. The sounds turned from peaceful night into battle. Clanging armour and weapons, heavy breaths, grunts, yells and finally screams.   
When he saw Darwin entering he decided to make a run for the living quarters where he expected Shaw to be. He got to the stone complex un-assaulted, knocked out a young guard with his shield and dashed on. 

Get in there, kill the commander and end the fighting. A mission, clear and uncomplicated as any other. 

He got past the great hall unscathed, everyone inside the castle hurrying to the fight outside. Around the corner of the library he was stopped. He didn’t see a shadow but felt the steel approaching. He turned, not quickly enough and the sharp pain of a blade piercing the armour and flesh of his shoulder made him roar. 

Instead of finding Shaw, Shaw had found him.


	15. Chapter 15

The cut was fairly deep but Erik could still move his shield arm and parry the next blows as Shaw drove him into the library.  
He was younger and in a better physical condition but Shaw was an experienced swordsman who knew how to attack an injury and drain his opponent. It took Erik what felt like an eternity till he caught his stance and could start fighting back in earnest. When he scratched Shaw’s left leg they separated, bookshelves in their backs.

“I see you’ve learned to keep your elbows down you ingrate bastard. Look what good it brought me teaching you.”

Erik tried to get his leg again, make him bleed harder, but his attempts were futile. 

“I’m ingrate? You wanted to kill me after I gave you an heir!”

Shaw’s face darkened even more and Erik could feel the anger behind the next strikes. 

“That’s it isn’t it? That’s why you think you’re better than me. Because you can make a bitch a child? You’re nothing. Greedy scum like the others, always wanting more. First it’s my affection, then my money. But you didn’t stop at that, did you? You wanted my omega too, something I lent you temporarily. And now you want my lands, my power? That’s why you came back with an army years after you ran like a frightened boy! Such an ambitious little bastard!”

Their swords met again, Shaw driving him deeper into the room.

“I’m glad that you’re back, at least now I can kill you myself!”

Shaw ferociously attacked his shoulder, Erik could feel the screech of the metal in more than one way and he let out a groan that turned into laughter as he took cover behind a shelf. 

You’re delusional, you always were. I don’t give a rat’s arse about your land or money or power, I never did. I never thought myself better than you. All I ever wanted was Charles.”

Shaw halted and Erik lashed out, missing. The other man parried and their armour banged together. The plate over his injured shoulder ripped off. 

“All of this for an unworthy, hateful little fuck? And _I’m_ the delusional one?”

“No, it's not about him anymore. This is your punishment for being on the wrong side of this war.”

He lunged forward, past Shaw’s defences, disarmed the man with a quick blow and brought him to his bleeding knee.  
If they’d kept to protocol he would have won. Defeated Shaw in a fair match, take him in a as a captive and read him his sentence. 

But this wasn’t a fair fight. The other man wanted to see him dead and there was no real reason why he shouldn’t take his life instead…

Shaw used his moment of wavering and leaped on him, shield high and with a feral snarl. The impact took Erik’s breath and sword, which scattered on the floor.  
Shaw punched him in the face, he retaliated but not forceful enough to get the man off him. They ripped and tore at their armour and available skin, trying to push the other down. 

There was no finesse left, just two alphas grunting and clawing at each other, teeth bared. Shaw was driven by an empowering rage Erik hardly could counter. He needed a weapon but couldn’t concentrate on the metal of his dagger. 

Then he felt the hand on his shoulder and the fingers digging into the wound. He screamed. Blinded by pain he tried to kick against Shaw’s leg, who growled and kicked back. He hit his ankle and when Erik staggered Shaw pushed him over a small stack of books on the floor.  
He fell.  
In a second Shaw was above him with his own dagger. 

“DON’T!”

A voice called, reverberating in the room and his body. 

Shaw froze, weapon raised to kill Erik. It took him a few seconds to realise that Shaw hadn’t stopped on his own accord, he couldn’t move. Fear and incomprehension in his pale eyes. 

This time he wouldn’t hesitate. He drew his dagger and rammed it into the uncovered patch of Shaw’s throat. Blood shed on him as he pulled it out, Shaw’s shallow breaths turning into a gurgle, his jugular bleeding into his pipes. The muscles released and his body fell forward burying Erik’s legs underneath him.  
Shaw was dead. 

Erik stared at him then raised his eyes to the small figure quaking next to the library entrance. Charles lay on the ground, his face ashen, eyes wide in terror and breath rattling. He scrambled against the wall trying to push himself up but couldn’t. 

“I felt you… pain… had to” 

Raven and some of his men burst through the open door. 

“Sir! Are you alright sir? It’s done, the soldiers yielded, we’ve taken…”

Her eyes trailed to Shaw’s corpse. 

“I was going to ask where he was, but it seems it has sorted itself out. Well done, sir.”

She took his hands and pulled him up, not before shoving Shaw off Erik’s legs with her boot. 

“Erik?! Erik!”

Alex barged in shouting and dragging a bloodied, dazed girl along on her collar. Someone behind him pushed other people in, including the large frame of Hank. 

“Darwin is hurt! This little bastard’s guard got him, I swear I will” 

“NO, NO!!!” It was more the sound of a beaten animal than a human being.

“It’s Logan’s, Charles, it’s Logan’s blood” the unfamiliar brown haired woman tried to calm down the terrified omega who’d finally managed to get up and threw himself at the guards between him and the child. 

“Let her go, LET HER GO!” 

Only then Erik realised: the girl, The Child. 

“Shut the bitch up or I will” 

Erik was on Alex in three strides. 

“You won’t lay a finger on this girl you understand?!”

“But”

“I will gut you if you do. If anyone does!” He raised his voice for the last three words so everyone could hear. 

Charles had struggled free from the men holding him back, with his powers or sheer force, it was impossible to tell, and wrested the girl from Alex’ hand.

“I’m so sorry, Annie, I’m so sorry!”

He was on his knees holding the child close to him and only then the shocked expression disappeared and she started sobbing. Then crying louder and louder clinging to her father’s body, burrowing her bloody face in his clothes. 

She looked like a female miniature copy of Charles but she was his too.  
Erik’s child.  
All the years he had known that she was alive, had even heard that Shaw had a female alpha heir but he avoided thinking of her. She never became more than an abstract to him.  
But here she was now, in front of him, in flesh and bones, a very real human being. 

It felt like something imploded inside of him, he swayed, using all his force to keep it together. A choked up noise spilled from his open mouth, no one noticed.  
The soldiers were staring at the bawling child who couldn’t be further from any of the dangers they had expected to run into. Charles looked up, frazzled and still grey-skinned but eyes as beautiful as they always had been.  
His inscrutable gaze reminded Erik how he could see everything going on in him. He mustn’t.  
‘Like a frightened boy’ Shaw’s words echoed in Erik’s mind. Yes, he had run, but not from Shaw. He had so many questions, to most of which he didn’t want an answer. Fury boiled up in him, combined with helplessness.  
He had just won this battle, he was victorious, so why didn’t it feel like it?!

“Darwin…” Alex murmured with insistence.

Right.

“Hank, you are a doctor! Go and help him!” 

The tall omega gawked like he still wasn’t over the surprise of seeing him again but then nodded and followed Alex back down to the kitchens. 

“Everyone, Edrin castle is taken. Gather the dead and let the kids from the village check if there’s anyone who’s got family here. They may claim them.” 

He sheathed his dagger and looked for his sword, carefully avoiding the omega kneeling on the floor. 

“Let the captives dig a hole for the rest. There is chalk in the storage rooms. Then release them to go home or join us if they want to. Mention the coin Lord Rogers will pay for their services. Also tend to the wounded.” 

He felt his shoulder, it ached and he would have to see Hank for it. 

“Raven,” he turned around to the young woman “bring the consort and the child to his room, we will decide what to do with them tomorrow.” He turned around without looking at them again.

 

In his chamber Annie fell asleep, exhausted from the crying but Charles paced up and down in front of the shut window trying to guess what was going on on the outside.  
They were cleaning up as Erik had ordered; he heard cries for some of the fallen, but the overhaul had been quick and not very bloody. Apparently some of the youths from the village were among Erik’s soldiers and had convinced the ones on Shaw’s side to yield, causing a chain reaction. 

At least that was what Charles could make from Sean’s proud disposition before Moira shouted at him for being insane. 

He wondered the same thing about himself. He had felt Erik’s wild swirl of emotion even in his weakened state but he had refrained from prying any deeper. It felt like he owed him this much respect. Now, outside the walls supervising the digging of the grave, he was too far away. 

He had simply trusted the man not to hurt Annie. Erik never would hurt _his own child_ , didn’t he say so himself when he told the young blond alpha to stand back? But Charles didn’t know Erik, not anymore.  
Eight years was a long time and people changed. Especially if he interfered and fiddled with their emotions. So he had left the decision about his daughter’s fate in the hands of a stranger.  
A stranger who wouldn’t even look back at Charles and probably only had disdain left for him.

In the afternoon the young female alpha who had escorted them up in the chamber brought them some stew and fresh water with a cautious smile on her face. She eyed Annie and there was no cruelty in her mind only curiosity and beginning stirs of affection. After she left, Charles and his daughter remained in the exhausted silence they had shared so far.  
Until Annie asked:

“Father is dead isn’t he?”

“Yes, yes he is.” 

He didn’t add ‘and I helped killing him’.  
He had no idea what possessed him to jump into the muddy water of Shaw’s mind and supress everything he could find, instincts, thoughts, hate. The only thing he knew was that he didn’t want Erik to get hurt, so he pushed and took hold of his mate like he didn’t know he could. 

He’d felt Shaw’s confusion, his fear and finally the pain of the blade cutting in. He had lighted up one last time, blindingly bright, before a dark drain sucked away everything that was Shaw. So different from Holder, but Charles still stayed till the end. Like a child looking at the wolf about to devour it, he hadn’t been able to avert his gaze. And then his mate was… gone.  
He sighed.

Annie slowly nodded at something with a downcast gaze. Then she looked up to him again, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“Will Logan die too?”

“I don’t know my love, I really don’t know.”

He had checked back to the flickers of his mind down in the sick quarters all day and had seen how far the man was gone. It was a miracle that he still was breathing.

“It’s all because of me, he tried to defend me…”

“No, stop talking like that! Logan loves you very much, he would do anything for you but he’s also a grown man and he does decide for himself. Nothing of this is your fault, my darling. Life just sometimes does things like that. Hank will try everything and we will hope for the best, alright? Logan is a very strong man after all.”

Annie snivelled but nodded again as Charles stroked the wet hair out of her face. 

“Shall I pray for him?”

“If you feel like it.”

“I don’t think he would want me to…”

Charles gave his daughter’s thoughtful face a feeble smile and kissed her head.

“No, he probably wouldn’t.” 

At night Annie fell asleep again quickly, snuggling into Charles but he couldn’t close his eyes.  
People left, people came back, and new people arrived. Everything was out of his hands again, about to change. 

A shiver caught him and sweat broke his skin. It wasn’t anxiety; it was his body realising something his mind was repeating over and over and still couldn’t comprehend. His mate was dead, their bond broken.  
Charles had fallen captive to an unsure future at the same time he became freer than he had been in more than ten years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure people don't talk that much during swordfights, but yeah, men give birth in this verse, so this works too XD 
> 
> Also sorry for the unregular updates but uni is getting more intense right now.
> 
> EDIT: I changed some of Shaw's lines during the fight retroactively. I've been over this so many times that I thought his motives were clear, when they weren't really. I hope that's better now.


	16. Chapter 16

The next morning Charles felt like stampeded by horses. After hardly more than two hours of sleep the young alpha, Raven, came back to take Annie to breakfast. 

“Don’t worry, I will see that nothing happens to her.” 

He checked her mind and only found giddiness at the prospect of testing her mothering skills in front of an omega she liked. He let her take his daughter without resistance; she would be in good hands and Charles could use some time to himself.  
Moira had brought up a washing bowl and he tried his best to get rid of his new, sicking sweet smell. His mate of a dozen years hadn’t been buried for more than a day in the chalk pit outside, yet Charles’ treacherous body excessively pumped out pheromones to show every alpha around that he technically was available again.  
He didn’t want to lead anyone on, for his own sake and theirs. Especially not the man he was about to meet. 

Annie wasn’t of age which made him regent and the formal signing over of Edrin castle to Rogers’ proxy his duty. The hot-blooded boy from yesterday escorted him down. He was in a much more amiable mood now that his lover had woken up and seemed to be out of the worst, but not amiable enough to not smirk at the whistles and catcalls that accompanied them. When someone held her friend back and proclaimed,

“Wait, Lensherr goes first” the boy laughed but Charles couldn’t hold back the shudder. 

When they stopped in front of a familiar door he understood why the soldiers assumed what they assumed. Erik had taken residence in Shaw’s bed-chamber. He would never… 

Alex knocked and let him in before closing the door in his back. Erik sat at Charles’ old breakfast table, a pile of papers in front of him.  
They were alone. 

Out of his armour he was thinner than Charles remembered and there were deep lines on his face one wouldn’t expect at his age. Still, Charles’ early prediction had become true, he was a very handsome man.

“Would you come here.”

His voice was cold and very focused, yet Charles could sense the storm of emotions in him as he stepped closer. 

“By signing this, you officially yield Edrin castle to his rightful majesty Lord Rogers. Do you understand?”

Charles nodded and their gazes met but Erik averted his quickly. It felt like Charles’ chest was clenching glass, but he had to keep going. He took the quill and signed the piece of paper. Erik’s shoulder was in clean bandages and he smelled of the aniseed disinfectant.

“How is your shoulder?” Just to say something.

Erik stared at him.

“Fine. Hank knows what he’s doing.” 

They fell silent. Erik opened his mouth as if to speak but closed it again.

“Would that be all?” 

“Yes.”

Charles wanted nothing more than to take the other chair and sit down with him. But it wasn’t his choice. He turned around and started to leave. 

“Wait.”

He looked back and saw that Erik had risen. 

“I know what you did” he blurted out. 

“I want you to understand that I know what you did that day at the bridge. For a long time I didn’t.”

His voice was full of a strangled urgency and Charles could tell that he failingly tried to stay true to a practised speech. Erik took a deep breath and caught himself.

“I thought that all the months had been a ruse. Something my imagination tricked me into thinking, something I WANTED to see. Maybe something you wanted me to see for a cruel play or to make it easier to give you a child. And when it was done you dropped me. It took me three years till I understood.”

The whirl was finally breaking through but it wasn’t anger it was a weary sorrow; Charles didn’t have to look, it filled the room on its own. 

“What had happened?”

“I saw you.”

Charles’ breath stopped. When?

“At King Howard’s funeral. There was a procession you were taking part in and I was in the crowd. I wasn’t very close but close enough to realise that none of my feelings had been a deception. You planted doubt in me. Isn’t it true?” 

Charles swallowed “Yes.”

Erik exhaled tension. 

“You made me doubt what I believed in the most. I was so sure of everything, of your love, of where I belonged, of my future. You took that from me. I trusted you when I invited you in my head and you abused that trust.”

Charles shrank at the last words. Erik needed to say what he wanted to say, no matter how much it hurt him.  
The alpha sat back down. 

“This wasn’t the only thing I understood that day though. Do you remember when I thought you were naïve? You’re an idealist, you always were. Hell, you’re a very powerful one, dangerously so; do you know that your philosophies brought along a mutiny? There’s a whole bunch of young people outside who were ready to lose their lives and social standings for the ideas you embedded in their heads.  
No, you weren’t the naïve, I was. I began to realise how ridiculous my hopes and plans were, how infeasible. I also realised what an utter slave I had made myself to your judgements and expectations and swore that I would never do this again. I was sure that coming back would trigger all of it and make me revert to being that forlorn little fool again.  
I thought that I had grown too much in the last years to endanger this growth for a hopeless chance of talking to you. Yet I still wanted to. Talk to you, be with you. But I had been gone for three years, left you with a child you didn’t want and a pig of a mate.  
I felt so guilty, I still do, and with every passing month the guilt became bigger and the wish to actually return weaker. I convinced myself that you must hate me, hate me more than I hated you for three years. And then, when I was forced to come back, you saved me. Like you saved me the first time. Without any hesitation.”

Erik looked up, now holding Charles gaze with a scrutinising one of his own. The ‘why’ was almost tangible in the room. Still, Erik didn’t say it.  
Instead he ran his fingers through his short hair scratching his head. 

“I don’t know what to do right now. I know how to deal with defeated enemies, with prisoners, I know how to deal with ex-lovers. I know how to deal with lost friends, but I have no clue what to do with you. And everyone expects me to.  
Some of my soldiers seem to have very particular ideas of what one should do to a conquered omega. Darwin would punch me for this even crossing my mind, but the truth is, it’s as good, or bad actually, as any other thought I had so far. I never had to confront someone I had this much baggage with or so many razed feelings for. Or so much debt I owed to. Usually I try to save my own life nowadays.”

Charles fidgeted.

“May I sit?”

“Hm? Yes, of course.”

Charles slid up on the chair opposite of Erik. He folded his hands in his lap and stared at them, trying to process all the information just loaded upon him. 

“You don’t owe me anything” he said after a moment of silence, looking back up in Erik’s fretful face.

“If it wasn’t you who had taken Edrin castle, Annie’s fate would look much direr than it does now. Her life for yours, I think it is a fair trade. I am truly sorry for all the trouble I have caused you. I know it was wrong to break your trust, even if my only intention was to keep you safe.  
I complained to you about how no one treated me like a full person and at the same time I denied you those exact rights. There is no excuse for this; all I can do is keep repeating that I am sorry. But believe me when I say that I never hated you. I could never do that.”

Charles turned his eyes back to his fingers. Neither dared to speak another word.

“I think I should leave now” he said after a while and Erik just nodded.

When he was at the door Erik asked:  
“You don’t sleep here anymore?” 

“No, Shaw and I haven’t been getting along too well in the past few years.” With a weak and very sad smile Charles left. 

 

He must have returned back to his chamber since Erik didn’t see him again on his tour through the castle.  
Instead he ran into Annie when he went down to the pantry. 

At first he only saw two children going through a chest of apples. When he asked what they were doing the boy’s head shot up and he squeaked, then tried to pull the girl with him and when she didn’t come he ran. Only at this point he realised that it was the viscountess. Looking a tad caught in the act she still held her head up high, a defiant and slightly arrogant pout on her lips. Erik was fascinated by how much she resembled Charles. 

“Raven said we could come down and get apples.”

It didn’t seem like his loyal friend to disobey his order to keep an eye on the child, however, he had seen a rather annoyed looking Angel stomping over the yard and he knew Raven’s weakness. 

Erik shook his head. “I’m not here to chide you.” 

When he had thought about what he wanted to tell Charles, 5 million things had shot to his mind, things he knew would be difficult to say but he also knew he could manage to bring across somehow. With her he was staring at a blank page. He had never been good at interacting with children let alone talking to them. He stared at the apple still in her hands and remembered something he had observed in Darwin’s and his bursting-at-the-seams house in the city.

“Do you want me to cut that?”

The girl looked at him diffidently for a second but then she nodded and moved closer to give him the fruit. Erik leaned back on a table and got his knife out under the watchful eyes of the girl.

“Do you know who I am?” he finally asked.

Annie nodded again and Erik’s heart jumped in his chest. Charles had told her.

“You’re the man who killed my father.” His heart sank back to its depths. 

“I am. Still you’re not afraid of me.” He held out the first slice of apple for the girl. She took it and hopped next to him on the table to eat it. 

“Dad always says that being afraid won’t change a thing.” She took a bite and her face lit up. 

“They taste better when they’re cut.” 

Erik took a slice for himself and smiled back.

“They do.”

“Father was an angry man. He screamed a lot. He didn’t like it that my best friend is an omega or when I cried when he took me deer-hunting. Dad talked to him before and afterwards and father screamed at dad too but dad is strong and I didn’t have to do it again.” She took the next slice. “I don’t like it when things die, even if I know everything has to. I just don’t want it to happen. Or to do it. It doesn’t feel good.” 

“No. It never does.” 

The girl looked at him searchingly before putting the piece of fruit in her mouth. 

“Dad told me something else about you. Why I shouldn’t be afraid.”

“What did he say?” 

She hesitated. “I’m not supposed to talk about this, to no one… But he said that you’re like us. Different.” 

Did she mean?

“You know how dad can see what people think and feel? I can feel the rain. Not just when it falls on me. I can feel it before that, when it is still clouds. And when I was a baby I made thunderclouds appear when I was angry. I may be able to do it again, but on purpose this time, dad says. What can you do?”

The whole time Erik had just stared at the girl next to him. His daughter. Charles and his perfect, smart daughter who liked cut apples, had an omega as a best friend and could predict the rain. He felt a sudden urge to cry. Instead he put down the rest of the mangled fruit and focused his strained thoughts on the knife. The blade did nothing at first, then it wobbled and started to curl rhythmically. Annie’s eyes grew wide at the display.

“Wow…” Carefully she outstretched her fingers to touch the slowly moving metal. Her long and thin fingers, which looked just like Erik’s.  
He couldn’t keep back the tears anymore. 

“Why are you crying?” There was so much concern in her young voice. 

“Is everything alright?” 

“Yes. Yes it is. So… the boy who was down here with you, is he your best friend?”

“Yes.” The child was confused by the sudden change of topic and still waiting for an explanation on why a strong soldier like him was crying, but she still answered.

“His name is Peter. He wants to be an astronomer when he’s older. I think he could be. He can sit with dad and watch the stars all night through, much longer than I can. I like it when we count and have to draw lines after the points dad puts on a sheet, but I usually fall asleep pretty soon.” 

“You watch the stars together?”

“Yes, and we use Hank’s amily sphere too.” 

Erik laughed and wiped the wetness out of his eyes.

“That is great! What else do you like? What do you want to become when you’re older if not an astronomer?”

Annie’s face, which had been brightening at Erik’s laugh darkened again. 

“I always thought that I would become the countess of Edrin. Now I don’t know what to do. But I like animals. Have you seen my pony? Although it is your pony now, I think.” 

Erik put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and looked her in the eye.

“I am sorry for every grief I brought upon you. You are a wonderful girl and I am a bad man. But nothing in the world could make me take your pony. It is yours and no one can tell you different, you understand me? I won’t let that happen.” 

“Really?! Oh thank you, thank you so much, sir!!” 

Annie hugged him impulsively, pressing her skinny little body against his. Erik hugged her back completely overwhelmed. He was eight years late but he finally held his daughter in his arms. 

“Oh, you’ve got to come, you have to see him. He’s an omega but a really feisty one. His name is Chippy because he has dark splotches all over his fur, and blue eyes. He‘s amazing!” Erik let himself get pulled up and dragged out to the stables.  
The stout little thing that shamelessly stole oats from the other horses indeed was amazing. 

 

In the evening Erik met with his men. As much as he had enjoyed the afternoon with Annie, the war wasn’t over. They had to discuss further proceedings. It was their unanimous, if reluctant decision that they would join Rogers’ forces in battle.  
He was a four days ride away and they could make it on time if they decamped tomorrow. Alex grumbled a little when Erik announced that he would leave Edrin castle in the hands of the former omega regent, but shut up when he was reminded that Darwin still was in their very proficient care and probably could take over from him soon. 

Erik went to tell Charles personally. He couldn’t believe that he had taken his old room.

“So you are going back to fight.”

“Yes, we have to. We swore an oath to Rogers and I am not going to break it.” 

“I understand.” Charles flushed lightly and locked his ankles; there was something on the tip of his tongue that he couldn’t spit out.

“Will you come back? Afterwards I mean?” 

“…If everything goes according to plan, yes. Darwin is my friend, I won’t leave him.” 

“Good. That is good. He seems like a worthy friend.” 

The next words were more of a rushed mumble than a sentence.  
“Please, please take care of you. And watch your shoulder. You have to come back in one piece.”

“Yes you do!” Annie was already under the blanket but her big blue eyes were attentively watching what was going on in the doorframe. 

Both men smiled at her.

“I will try, I promise. Good night.” 

“Good night.”

Erik took a few steps before he turned and said:

“Charles? Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exams are over (for now) and Erik finally talks about his feelings :) 
> 
> The 'amily sphere' is an [armillary sphere ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillary_sphere) which aren't only beautiful to look at, they're rather fascinating old-timey tools. 
> 
> And remember when I said in the tags that Charles and Erik were the only mutants? I lied. Annie is one too xD


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took so long. I was very unhappy with one part and had to rewrite it, which is something I HATE to do. (That's the reason why I'm stuck with the Brandon/Martin fic btw). 
> 
> Then it just got longer and longer and longer, so I've decided to split it into two chapters. The next two will be more compact and eventful, but there were some things that had to get out ;)
> 
> Again, I'm sorry and I hope you still enjoy it.

Erik’s troops were riding light so their whole baggage train stayed back at Edrin castle.  
Plus some additional men to guarantee its protection. 

He had told them that Charles was in charge before he left, but that didn’t automatically buy him their respect. The soldiers were irritated by the notion of following the orders of an omega and the situation remained difficult, even after a still bed-ridden Darwin had reinforced the command. 

Charles knew that he had to get to them somehow, if he wanted to keep his family out of trouble. To him the most logical way was through the soldiers’ stomachs. He opened the castles’ stocks of dried sausages and table beer to them, appeasing at least two of the desires burning in the flock of strange alphas. 

The other big one posed a problem. They wouldn’t touch him or Hank or Angel, Darwin’s order and Raven’s wrath protected them. But the omegas working in the castle were fair game. Charles sent most of them home to their families, hating himself for the step but it was the only way to secure their safety.  
Concerning Moira and even Peter, he was glad that Sean stayed, no matter how sad the reasons for it were. 

His mother had thrown him out. Shaw hadn’t been a beloved ruler, quite the contrary, but leading a mutiny against one’s lord was outrageous and not the proper behaviour for the eldest alpha from a reputable workman’s family. Sean seemed to bear the disinheritance well but it could be that he underestimated the severity of the situation. Or maybe he just liked to be around Moira all the time, as he continued to court her in his clumsy, puppy-like fashion.

Strangely enough, Charles’ refusal to wear the traditional widower’s scarf was what dissolved most of the tension. He attended the rituals the villagers were holding at the chalk pit. The people grieved and he wanted to be there for them.  
He also could feel some grief for Shaw seep into him. He had hated the man but he’d been so important to him for a major part of his life and letting-go was harder than he had thought. The rituals he not really believed in helped him dealing with it. 

But he wouldn’t cover the marks on his neck. 

It bought him a disapproving glare from the priest which in return was met by cheers and a weird form of approval and admiration from the soldiers. Too many of them had been driven out of their hometowns by overzealous members of the clergy. The folk seemed indifferent about it. None of them were truly mourning Shaw so they understood. However, tradition was tradition and if he hadn’t been held in such high esteem they probably would have reacted differently.  
But they didn’t and came in large numbers when he asked them to clean and restore the castle under the watchful eyes of the soldiers. 

Who he was restoring it for, Charles didn’t know. 

Well, for whoever won this in the re-distribution of land after the war was over.  
Not for himself and his daughter. Their chances to stay here were practically nil. 

Only if the castle fell to a noble who already had alpha children and chose to take Charles as a mate, they would be accepted here. But who would do that? If Rogers succeeded there were many eligible omegas to be divided up as spoils of war, a lot of them younger and more desirable than Charles. That wasn’t counting the sons and daughters of the winners, who would be thrown on the changed market too. 

It was more likely that they were kicked out of the castle which meant that he would have to bind himself to a commoner. He didn’t oppose this thought because of the class difference; he only wished he could provide for Annie on his own. 

But there weren’t many professions for unmated omegas, respectable ones at least, no matter how vast his knowledge was. He only could work as a teacher if he joined an order and that was out of question with Annie on his side. 

He had to find a suitable mate among the people, no matter how little he wanted to be bound to anyone ever again.  
‘Except Erik’ a little, hopeful voice in his head supplied, but he couldn’t impose on the man ~~if~~ when he came back. Not without his trust or forgiveness. 

Besides, all of those scenarios were built on the assumption that Charles had a choice in this matter. Which he didn’t. And none of them allowed him to continue his projects, as the owner of a school or a scientist. 

So he kept distracting himself by cleaning the castle and writing to merchants, informing them about the changed situation, hoping that it would bring more goods back into the country.  
Then, three days after Erik had left, there was something else to focus his mind on. Hank called him when he was just out in the yard talking to some masons. He had to come down to the sick quarters. Logan was dying. 

Charles had never told Hank of his gift. He loved the man dearly but there was one thing he couldn’t know. If he had had Annie’s gift or Erik’s... 

He didn’t, and he didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he told him that he could go in people’s heads. 

Hank still had caught up to some parts of it. Charles didn’t know how he explained it to himself, maybe he thought Charles simply had a calming presence, so he always ordered him to the beds of the badly wounded and dying to comfort them. 

Logan hadn’t woken up from his fever since the day of the attack. It was raging in him, his body immediately sweating out every drop of water and soup Hank or Betty poured down his throat.  
The air was heavy with the smell of herbs and alcohol, Hank had done everything he could to keep the wide gash in his chest clean but had now reached the limits of his art. The bleeding was staunched and there was no visible infection spreading, no smell of pus. But the fever wouldn’t subside and Logan grew weaker every day. 

Charles had lessened his pain whenever he could, but he was so overwhelmed by the wild storm of disjointed images rushing through the man that he didn’t know what else to do or where to start. 

It didn’t matter now. He had to dive in and open his mind to it anyway, maybe there was some way, some good he could do. 

The flickers of the woman with the white strand in her hair and the gap toothed smile hit him like a fist to the face. She wasn’t smiling now. She was crying, recoiling from Logan, crawling back into his arms, sobbing, kissing him between tears and always, like on a horrendous loop, her empty-eyed body on that bed.  
The linen between her legs was deep red and soaked with blood. The feeling of injustice and a bottomless loss suffocating everything else. 

Charles knew enough of Logan’s story from bits and pieces he had gathered by observing him, and it hurt too much to see those memories torture him to the last. He couldn’t tolerate this. He took his friend’s large hand in his and softly stroked it.

“Logan? Please Logan, can you hear me?” 

Nothing changed but when Charles said his name a second and a third time an image of him lit up. It was only a tiny piece of driftwood in the cataract that was Logan’s mind but Charles grabbed it and held on to it tightly. He didn’t look like himself, not like he looked now. In Logan’s head he always would be the boy in his teens from back when they first met.

“I’m here Logan. Annie comes every day. She misses you, she doesn’t give up the hope that you make it, you know?”

An image of Annie joined the one of Charles and he forced them to stay on top. 

Then all three of them were together in the courtyard, Annie’s first time on Chippy, her excited laughter and Charles who couldn’t quite ban the worried look from his face as he held her steady on the little horse. 

Charles started to breathe heavily and began to feel the physical strain of being in a wild mind this long. 

But it was working. The more he pulled and braced those images against the brutal onslaught of older, darker memories the more good ones popped up. 

Moira braiding Annie’s hair, Peter running after Charles, the children bombarding Hank with questions. Charles in his green, embroidered tunic, the kiss Charles had planted on him when he woke after the leg injury. Even if his head felt like it was going to split, Charles couldn’t help a little smile at the awkward fumbling that had followed. 

Logan sitting with the servants drinking and laughing, Charles joining their card game. Moira in her lilac dress, the flowers Peter and Annie had put in her hair.  
Then an image of Erik. As he had looked before he left, tall and thin and boyish. 

This was it, only a bit more. 

Erik’s arm around Charles’ shoulders smiling his wide and slightly terrifying grin. When Moira joined him he knew it wasn’t a memory anymore.  
They all were at the river, Hank drawing something in the sand. Sean was there, Peter riding on his back, Betty bringing elder flower juice while Annie leaped around her in circles. 

Logan lay back in the soft warm grass. It felt so real. The stalks giving way under his weight, the damp earth, how the air smelled of summer and sun.  
The happy voices slowly abated, the noises drowned out and the light got dimmer. It didn’t feel like the other times when Charles had accompanied people to the brink. Logan didn’t go there.  
Charles looked at him as his face relaxed and the breathing evened. 

He had fallen asleep. 

Not his feverish stupor, a deep sleep. Charles was exhausted from pushing his powers to the limit. He felt spread out too thin, the images of the dead woman and the ones of what would never be still lingering. He noticed that his face was wet, he had cried, yet there was this unbelieving, careful hope growing in him. 

Hank rushed to the bed after Charles called. They couldn’t explain it but over the next day the fever subsided and the wound started to heal properly. Hank, who didn’t show his emotions as openly as he had as a teen anymore, pulled Charles into his arms and hugged him so hard, Charles had to gasp for air. 

They both laughed like boys and the elation grew even bigger when Logan woke three days later. Groggy and weak but awake and with eyes as clear as they could be in a man who just escaped death. He was hungry and couldn’t remember much. 

But he was just in time for the message a pigeon carried to Edrin castle. 

Stane had fallen. His followers yielded. The war was over.


	18. Chapter 18

Erik got his blanket from the back of his horse and spread it out on the floor.

It was over. 

Rogers’ banners were blowing in the wind wherever he looked. The wine was flowing and the noises in the camp made it appear as if the men just wanted to roar off all the stress, all the fatigue and fear. 

The blood of the executed generals who wouldn’t bow (much fewer than Erik had expected) had dried and Rogers had been carried through the rows between the tents.   
In the morning the nobles would sign the first drafts of their contracts but now the soldiers wanted to celebrate. 

As did Rogers’ mate.   
Stark had been with them at the front the whole time. His strategy, his machines had won them the battle and therefore the war. Erik and his troops had arrived in the nick of time. There was some insecurity in the plan but with them taking Stane’s army headfirst, everything fell into place. 

Anthony Stark had correctly predicted the manoeuvre Stane would implore if faced with a horde of rough soldiers recklessly storming at him, and it had driven them directly into the prepared trap. Made of a band of archers under the Romanov banner, the larger part of Coulson’s infantry and Rogers of course.   
Also into the spiked trenches and other militaristic gadgetry that was operated by Stark’s old childhood friend, Lady Potts. 

Stane had died after only an hour, at the edge of the fighting, crushed by the weight of his injured horse. The battle continued because it took people a while to realise it. But when the news spread some of Stane’s companions began to lay down arms and the fighting receded. 

Now Rogers was toasting the people who had died for him and the ones who were alive for him. He didn’t drink much of the wine carted from the village nearby but looked upon the frolicsome soldiers with a proud, glowing smile on his face. 

Until his mate, the royal prince, got up from where he’d been drinking and laughing with his friend Victoria, took him by the hand and dragged him to their private tent. They were accompanied by whistles and cheers, and not even Erik could frown at that. 

The battle had only taken a small toll on his troops and both Raven and Alex were unharmed. He could go back to Angel and Darwin without shame. Most of his men would be released of their duty since they weren’t needed anymore.   
Erik however had promised to help with the restoration of the lands. He had asked the High Constable to be allowed to return to Edrin castle and work from there, mentioning that his wounded friend waited for him. Coulson had only grabbed him at the shoulder and said, slightly slurred:

“Sergeant, you’re a hero now. You can do whatever you want.” 

Erik grinned at that and took it as permission to leave. But what did he want? He knew he was entitled to some reward but how much money did he need? What could he ask for? Land? 

A patch of land, outside the capital, with a good, solid house on it. That was a reasonable recompense. 

As they sallied off the next day, Raven with a terrible headache, his mind wandered during the long hours in the saddle. 

He could take up guarding the roads again and expand his business. Let some of his friends live with him, not all of them and their aunts again, just a few. Instead create a steady income, fill the house with his own family and care for them. 

There was more. 

He wanted to know what it felt like to come home to a beautiful omega like Charles and to a daughter like Annie. But that was an impossible fantasy. 

There weren’t any omegas like Charles, nor other children who were his daughter. And Erik couldn’t say what the real Charles’ wishes were.   
He obviously had feelings for him, otherwise he would have never saved him like he had. But did he only want their friendship back or would he theoretically agree to become his mate? 

Erik’s body was very keen on the last idea. Was this him turning into a blue-eyed, smitten little sucker again? No, but he couldn’t deny the flutter in his stomach when he thought of Charles. How quickly would he notice it with his incredible gift? And what would he do with it? Charles had become much stronger, there was so much power hidden underneath the sweet face now. 

Erik scolded himself. It was unfair to go this way. Charles had always used his powers to protect him.   
Yes, they could be invasive and destructive but they also were what had fascinated him about the man in the first place. Hadn’t it been for Charles, the discovery that there was someone else like him and his encouragement; he would have never honed his own gift. Never learned how to manipulate the metal he felt and never known this important part of himself.   
He had grown stronger too, making them two peas that stood out even further in the pot and it filled him with nothing but pride. 

Three peas actually, he realised as he wondered how powerful Annie must be if she was both of them combined. What other possibilities lay there between them, which talents would they create if they had more children?   
Charles obviously loved Annie, maybe he had changed his mind about giving birth and they could have a whole litter of healthy, smart, sliced apple-loving, fantastically gifted…

No. No, he was dreaming again. Even if they could trust each other wholly and Charles loved him enough, the omega’s political situation didn’t allow such thoughts. 

Edrin was big and a high valued prize amongst the winners. And Charles, handsome, of noble birth, young enough and fertile was a part of that prize. Whoever would get Edrin would be foolish not to take him with it. 

The candidates most likely were Coulson and Potts. Coulson’s eldest child was the same age as Charles but that had never stopped any alpha before; and he had been widowed for a long time now.   
Potts had refused to mate so far, but Erik was sure she could be enticed by an intelligent, outspoken and gorgeous omega like Charles. 

Damn it! He mustn’t think of Charles as gorgeous. He was, but thoughts like these wouldn’t help Erik. Not if he didn’t want to wind up with thwarted hopes again.   
He needed something stable and real that no one could easily take from him. 

For the first time in his life he had the financial security to provide for an omega in a more than respectable manner, yet the one he wanted was still out of reach. The whole journey his mind was occupied by playing through different scenarios of what would happen, steeling and preparing himself for the inevitable let-down. 

Then he was back, riding through the open gate of Edrin castle. The first person he saw was the brown haired woman, Moira if he recalled correctly, who was carrying a basket of lettuce down the main entrance stairs. Behind her was Charles. 

While the woman exulted loudly Charles just dropped his carrots and stared. Then relief like Erik had never seen it before washed over his face, the big blue eyes brightened and he whispered thanks before a radiant smile that was close to laughter appeared on his red lips. 

So that was how it felt. 

How much he wished Charles would come running to him, press his face against his leg still in the stirrup, pull him down from the horse and kiss him. For a second it looked like that was what Charles was about to do.   
He took a few steps at once and paced over the gravelly yard before he caught himself and stopped, still looking excited und unbelievably grateful, even if embarrassment mixed in. 

He straightened up, wiped the dirt from his simple workman-like tunic, then he welcomed them back in the way of a true lord. 

Erik slid down from his horse and approached him. In all his brooding he had looked for a definite solution to present when he came here, a battle plan of how to proceed. Now that he saw Charles in person he knew that he didn’t need to.   
People were so much more complicated than simple strategies and weirdly enough, Erik was very glad about it. Charles was an attractive omega about to be bartered off, the object of many of his fantasies, but he also was a human being.   
With his own dreams, desires and the same conflicting feelings. 

He didn’t need an answer to anything. They would find one together. 

For the first time they knew each other there wasn’t immediate danger hanging over them. Yes, their situation would change in some time not too far away, but for now the both were free people, allowed to be around each other and more or less on the same level. They could put the past behind and open up for the future.

He wished he could just gather the man up in his arms and hug him for a long time, right on the spot, without causing a major faux-pas. Was Charles reading him when he cocked his head slightly and gave him a tentative but very sincere and happy smile? He didn’t care. He didn’t fear him, not like this. Just when Erik was about to say something, Alex trod in and asked where Darwin was. 

“He’s still in the sick quarters although he’s doing fine. I think he has taken a shine to Hank-“

“What? The omega doctor? That little- I’m off doing battle and he’s flirting with omegas! I’m gonna tear him a new one!”

Alex face contorted in anger and he stomped into the castle. Charles grinned to himself before he raised his eyes back to Erik.

“I’m sorry, I needed to give him that little shock. I’m very glad that you are back.” 

“Nuh, I think he deserved it. I’m very happy too.”

They fell quiet again. Opening up was kind of hard still, especially when you hadn’t much experience with it.

Raven, who stood behind Erik cleared her throat.

“Oh yes, I am sorry, where are my manners? Please come in. We were just preparing a stew, but I can call for something bigger too, we have beer, not much wine yet and salted bread for the most pressing hunger. And Angel is in the library with Peter and Annie. Did you know she could read? I have a few books in her native tongue. She loves them.”

They all followed Charles in the great hall where he made them tell what exactly had happened. About thirty minutes in Alex joined them chomping away on the stew and supplying his own more colourful version of the story.   
He took the being mocked very well and was just happy that Darwin was alright. And apparently thought that Hank was very cute and that he would understand, much to Charles’ amusement. 

The next two weeks were filled with a serenity Erik had missed so much in the years of the war.   
They paid the soldiers, broke the camp and started to prepare the land for a new lord. 

Erik learned that he quite enjoyed deciding which officials to keep and regulating taxes, even if most of the work was done by Charles. He also learned that just because he was around the man didn’t mean he would fall back in his old rut. 

He was older and wiser now, knew how to control his feelings better, and Charles wasn’t the oblivious and terribly flattered boy anymore either. 

Instead Erik found himself slowly and deliberately falling for a competent, young leader, who was gracious but also knew when the pleadings of the folk were just testing his generosity. Who wore his simple tunics and delighted in the reddish stubble he could grow without people slandering that he was prettier clean-shaven. Erik thought it fit him very well. 

Charles joined them on every inspection, finally free from the walls of his castle, taking in all of the land Shaw had ruled, yet he had barely seen.  
If anyone gave him a strange look, Erik would make sure that they stopped immediately. 

Of course they danced around matters, beginning to speak and stopping again, but Erik liked that he shared time with Charles when they didn’t think about what happened between them.   
When they just focused on the present, on what was happening in the moment. They got to know each other again, noticed what had changed in the eight years and what hadn’t. 

Then a pigeon arrived. The rough distribution of the lands had been decided upon. Edrin would go to Coulson. The High Constable was on his way.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while again (I patched it together during studying) but it's finally finished! Woohoo! :)

Charles was very busy. He only had a few weeks, days, of being a lord left, of having some kind of influence on the land and the well-being of his people. 

He’d be damned if he didn’t make the best of it. 

The school couldn’t stay in the castle, so he acquired an old cottage that was renovated and he wrote an abbess, with whom he had held a very spirited correspondence about crop rotation, to send some of her monks and nuns as teachers. He ordered the streets to be cleared of all the garbage that had been thrown upon them as a hindrance for an approaching army, and finally brought the sewage-water law through which Shaw had been stalling for ages.   
Every idea that shot into his mind he bounced off Erik. And Erik helped him to make them happen. 

Never had Charles experienced a back and forth in these matters, how it felt to have responsibility that you could share with someone. Every minute of it he enjoyed. They didn’t talk much about personal troubles and that was fine with him. He liked how it was now, with all the complications put on a back burner. 

That didn’t mean the people around him would do the same. Moira came to him one day with red eyes and a bunch of asters in her hand.

“He did it again.”

“He did what, my love? Give you flowers?”

“My favourite flowers. In my favourite colour. He’s nineteen! I’m a decade older than him. What does he want from me?”

“I’d say you probably should ask him, not me.”

“He says that he loves me, he says all those wonderful things about me that aren’t true and that he wants to be my mate.” 

Charles dragged Moira with him and together they plopped down on the stone bench just outside the eastern wall. 

“What things aren’t true?”

“He keeps going on about how kind and loyal and strong I am… I know how ridiculous it is to complain about that! But he doesn’t just say it he praises me almost!”

“Moira, without your kindness loyalty and strength I would be long lost. He doesn’t make those things up. It is wonderful if someone loves for what you are. The question only is: Do you love him too?”

“I- I don’t… He’s too young.”

“My dear, how many suitors did you have while you were at this castle with me.”

“About 6.”

“There were eight, don’t sell yourself short. And how many of them did you tell to get lost after a day or two?” 

“They were filthy, they wanted to abuse my situation, they wanted my body… four or so."

“Good and what happened with the fifth, the sixth and the seventh?”

“They were annoying, they wanted me to move away, they couldn’t provide for me and Peter, tons of reasons, Charles you know that!”

“And you never had a hard time to get rid of them. You’re very direct and they understood quickly. So why is there still an eight around? When did you first meet him? Two years ago? In those two years you never told him to let it go, never in the way you did with the others. Why?”

“He’s different, he flatters me-“

“They all flattered you, that’s what alphas do.”

“… I like having him near. He makes me laugh and feel like I can let go around him, like I have to worry about less.” 

Charles smiled.

Moira sighed. “He’s so young.”

“That is not a real concern. Don’t pile up reasons that aren’t reasons. If you like being with him, be with him. He certainly does like being with you. I’m still not sure why exactly he started that mutiny, but I guess it wasn’t for me.”

Moira groaned and laughed at the same time. She hugged him and burrowed her face in his shoulder where she stayed for a while. Two bodies so familiar. He would miss her.

“Thank you, Charles. Promise me this: Listen to your own advice.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking ab-“

“Ah!”

She put her finger to his lips.

“No. Think about it. I’ll have to go and make some persistent little red-head very happy.”

“Are you going to-?”

“No. I still need time for that. But there are things you can do you don’t have to be mated for. That’s also my advice for you, the next time you come back from one of your inspection trips.”

“Moira!”

She grinned wickedly, got up and left.

The inspection trips.   
As much as they skirted around so many issues, Erik and him couldn't and wouldn't avoid being in close physical proximity. With all its effects.

Charles caught himself gazing at Erik in his worn and torn uniform, wishing to just tear it off him more often than he’d liked. In turn he felt the waves of desire whenever Erik was watching him or touching him; no matter if he swore he wouldn’t read the man.  
But those waves were natural reactions of a healthy alpha to an unmated omega, nothing else. Despite their ritual that clearly was more than Erik would do to any other person.

Erik always helped him off his horse when they came back. Charles was perfectly capable of doing this on his own but it gave them a chance to touch and let the other even closer without being improper.   
Erik’s hands clasped around his waist and him holding on to the alpha’s shoulders. He had thought it was inconspicuous enough how he blushed lightly and how Erik always made sure he was safe on the ground for far too long, but on the other day he had seen Darwin just roll his eyes and laugh. 

They mustn’t act on it. It would complicate everything, the peace they had at the moment, hours like these when they would sit together on the western wall to watch Sean, Alex, Raven and some youths from the village play ballgames in the sunset.   
Hank would cheer them on surprisingly loud and swearing, which was something he usually never did. The omega had loosened up so much. Even though he had left the order years ago he had never indulged or shown any interest in an alpha.   
Two days back Charles could have sworn that he had witnessed Hank flirting with Alex. Or at least this awkward thing that was his way of flirting, that went straight over Alex’ head.   
But not over Darwin’s who joined the castle’s doctor and Annie on the line while Angel taught Peter some counting rhymes that certainly weren’t appropriate for his 9 year-old ears. 

Charles glanced at Erik who grinned his broad predator smile as he watched the scene before them. He wore ~~Shaw’s~~ an old, dark-blue tunic which was much better in the finally warm summer evening than his heavy uniform. Long limbs sprawled out on the floor, the tension gone from his shoulders he seemed so relaxed and content and therefore incredibly beautiful.   
He noticed that Charles was looking and turned his face towards him, smile brightening. 

“They’re getting mated. Raven and Angel.”

“Oh, do they? That’s marvellous!” 

Charles beamed back.

“They do seem to like each other very much.”

“They do. But Angel had some conditions: She would only agree to it if Raven promised to keep her ovipositor away from her for at least three years. She wants to take her back to Corial, travel some time and set up a business before there are children.”

Charles laughed. 

“A woman after my taste. She chose well in Raven, she’s a good girl and a good alpha from what I have seen.”

Erik smiled and nodded, then he looked like he wanted to say something during which his smile faltered. 

“The High Constable, Coulson, he’s a good alpha too. He will treat you right.”

Charles blinked at him confused.

“You think Coulson will take me?” 

Erik noticed the fear in the question.

“Not by force! As I said he’s a good alpha and man. But he will be the lord here soon and you will be his consort.”

“What makes you think so? I’m the widower of a traitor, Coulson is one of the richest men in this country now. He can find a better omega than me easily. Besides-“

“There aren’t any better ones.” 

Charles froze and Erik blushed at what he had blurted out. He tore his face away from Charles and looked out into the lands.

“Coulson is not an idiot and he can use his eyes. He would never refuse you. And neither would you, he can give you stability and a future for Annie. The last week I couldn’t stop thinking of how I would fit in there. I should leave, that’s the only healthy solution but I can’t will myself to want that. I keep picturing myself as your lover, Charles did it once with Shaw, he can do it with Coulson too. At the same time every bit of common sense in me screams how ridiculous this is, how demeaning towards you AND me. But I can’t go, not again. I need to stay here with you, you’re my family.” 

He looked back at Charles who had paled completely.

“I didn’t know…”

Erik tilted his head questioningly. 

“Didn’t you read me?”

“I thought I shouldn’t. I thought you wouldn’t like it so I didn’t.”

Now Erik was the one to stare speechlessly.

“Charles, I don’t want you to mess with me, to change things but you always will be welcome in my head. This is your gift, how could I ever forbid you to use it?”

He appeared appalled by that thought. 

“Our gifts are an important part of us, you taught me that. Society may not be ready for it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t use it and you shouldn’t restrict yourself either.”

Charles’ eyes welled up and through the fog he could see concern shadow over Erik’s face.

“May I? Now?” 

“Of course.” 

With that Charles fell into Erik’s mind. In some way it was the same place like 8 years ago, full of warmth and love for him. But it was different too.   
Less hectic, not that Erik’s mind ever had been, but it was more structured, profounder, filled with less impulsiveness and more experience. Strength and trust.   
If Charles would have been asked, he couldn’t describe how it felt.   
Safe? Fulfiling? Like a piece of a puzzle that fit his. Only this time he realised why. 

Everything in himself was mirrored there or completed. Those were his feelings too. He always had loved Erik, not just desired him or needed him as friend, loved him. It only had taken him almost decade and a dead mate to notice. 

Charles tried to say something but he only croaked. Erik was at his side and close in a second, still not daring to touch him. That stupid man feared that Charles would reject him, as if he’d ever been able to do that, no matter what he had said at a bridge a long time ago. 

Charles was about to gather his voice when loud hollering from the field below disrupted him.   
Sean’s team had won and they came in their direction laughing and celebrating. Erik and he separated, so slowly for what should have been a quick discreet gesture. They were swept away by the horde and didn’t see each other in private again until the next morning. 

They rode down to another village to see to the matters of a crumbling temple. Their company forbid any further discussions of the topic even if Charles nearly had driven himself mad during the night. 

Erik loved him, he loved him back and he needed to tell him, to show him as soon as possible. The alpha hesitated when they were back at the castle. Carefully he waited till Darwin was gone before he lifted Charles from his seat. And this time Charles didn’t let him go. 

He looked into the stormy eyes, into the conflicted and longing mind. Then he smiled and pulled Erik down by his neck and kissed him. Chaste at first but Erik was quick to open his mouth and the kiss got hungrier and deeper. They had waited for so long. 

It was as if their bodies were made for each other, the way Charles could curve himself into Erik so naturally, how Erik pressed him to himself, just like he wanted to be pressed. Years could have passed, wars fought around them, they wouldn’t have noticed. When they finally parted Charles breath had been taken by everything that rushed through him, the full whirlwind of emotion.

“I love you. I always have.”

Erik let out something that was in the undefinable area between a sob, a laugh and a whimper.

“I love you too.”

Then he pulled Charles face back to the kiss and breathed him in once more.


	20. Chapter 20

Erik didn’t know how they made it through dinner.   
At least no one saw their intertwined feet under the table and the heated looks they shot each other. Annie seemed to realise something was going on but soon was distracted by Peter and their quarrel over who would assist Angel on the day of ceremony. 

Darwin, who usually was so vigilant, was occupied feeding Hank scoops of custard while Alex peeled the leaves of the strawberries that went with it. Raven and Logan were talking blades which could go on for hours and Moira and Sean hadn’t shown up for dinner at all. 

No one noticed when they slipped from the table after each other. There was the chamber in the tower but the master bedroom was closer. As soon as they were in, Erik threw Charles against the door and kissed him. He had resisted the urge through three courses and it couldn’t wait any longer.   
This was it. The way Charles craned his neck into it, how he sucked on his lower lip, grabbed him by the waist and his bum, how he spread his legs to give Erik’s thigh access.   
How he grinned as Erik whimpered into their kisses,

“We have to be quiet.”

“I’m done being quiet.”

They both mewled twice as loud when Charles bit Erik’s lower lip. 

That was what he had been looking for. In Robert’s blue eyes, in Oliver’s wit and wavy hair, in Nasir’s gorgeous, compact body.

This was the real one, the one who was in love with him. Warm and giving underneath him, fingers twisted in Erik's tunic, cock hard under the layers of his clothes. Charles moaned as Erik began to move against him, searched the friction with his hips and ground back. His eyes were big and dark, mouth hanging open, lips so red Erik couldn’t but take them again. 

He smelled and tasted so wonderful. It was Charles’ perfect taste, just even better than he remembered.

Unmated, unclaimed. 

The air was thick with the smell of the slick between his cheeks; Charles was getting ready for him, ready to become His and His alone. 

Erik groaned, clutching the other body to himself as if he wanted them to melt together, rutting against him like an animal. He was so close, so close to what would be painfully reminiscent of their first encounter.  
But this time it was Charles who gave in first with helpless little grunts. He dug his nails into Erik’s back and came, leaning on the bedroom door, still fully clothed. Erik followed quickly, thrusting into Charles’ pliant body until the release overwhelmed his senses and everything drowned out in Charles’ scent and the heat of his body. 

When he came back he looked down at Charles who was softly kissing the area where Erik’s tunic revealed his collar bones, his stubble prickled on Erik’s glowing skin. He panted and smiled so bright at him that Erik was sure his chest couldn’t contain his thumping heart any longer. 

Wordlessly Charles tugged him to the bed, slowly getting out of his soiled clothes. Erik stopped him and unlaced his leggings for him. He was drowsy but he wouldn’t let the chance to see Charles' body up close go, to see and learn what else but the scent had changed.   
The shoulders were still freckled as ever but broader now and filled out. He wasn’t the thin youth anymore but a grown, slim man. A man who had enough to eat yet still knew how to work with his hands. 

Erik trailed his fingers through the new body hair sparsely sprinkled over Charles’ chest, his flat stomach and the strong but still so soft curve of his bottom. T  
hey smiled and Charles lay down on the bed, a beautiful blush on his face.

It was his turn. 

Erik always had thought that he hadn’t transformed much in the last 8 years, look-wise at least. Charles tracing the fine white lines on his body with a concerned and worried look told him differently. The omega kissed the biggest scars as if to apologise he wasn’t there to heal them before. He stilled over the one on his shoulder, the one Shaw’s sword had left there only a few weeks ago. Erik stroked Charles’ silky hair as he touched the tissue with his lips, more a caress than a kiss.

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” 

Carefully, not to break the moment, he aligned their bodies, soothing the distress from Charles with long strokes along his flanks. They kissed, front pressed to front, leisurely and relaxed, the desperation taken off by the tryst through their clothes.   
Erik felt like he had never belonged somewhere this much, at Charles side, in his arms. And when their kisses became more passionate again and his body was ready to push inside of Charles he realised something. 

A tiny part of his consciousness asked how many alphas had had that revelation with a moaning omega’s legs hooked over their shoulders but it was all so clear to him now. Screw the rules of the lords, what was proper or not, what was expected of them, screw Coulson.   
He loved Charles and Charles loved him. They both wanted to be together like this so why shouldn’t they? 

Charles blinked up at him, face flushed and sweaty. He was irritated by why he had stopped. He tried to shove himself down on him but the angle and the lack of leverage made it almost impossible. Erik just smiled and withdrew further. Charles let out a displeased noise, no longer capable of articulation, but grew very still when Erik leaned forward and kissed the gape of his neck. He nipped on it and then questioningly and tenderly bit the area where Shaw’s teeth marks were still visible. 

Charles studied his face, fingers in Erik’s hair when a smile curled his lips, cheerful, gentle and warm. He tilted his head back to expose the full line of his long neck to Erik who couldn’t suppress the growl as he bit down. Over and over again, marking him as his.   
His hips started moving anew, harsher, quicker. He had to share how good this was, physically make Charles feel how much he wanted this and him to be his. The omega answered every thrust, whined when Erik closed his jaws on him and bit Erik’s shoulder back thoroughly. 

His hand pulled Erik’s hair tight, just on the brink of pain, and urged the alpha’s face harder against his neck. The noises that escaped his lungs became louder, more broken, caring even less if anyone heard. Then he threw back his head in ecstasy and shouted out his climax as his clenching muscles dragged Erik with him. 

Panting and slowly coming down from their highs they barely managed to detach, didn’t want to and wouldn’t had if their bodies hadn’t protested. Erik ran his hand over Charles’ sweaty and come-striped chest before he licked and kissed it.

“Mine.”

Charles smiled. He nipped at his neck and kissed him on the lips.

“Mine.”

Then he curled into him and Erik kissed the feathery brown mop of his hair before he rapidly got sucked into the cosy darkness of a fully sated, sticky sleep. 

 

Of course the bites didn’t hold, not when Charles wasn’t in heat, which probably was a good thing in retrospect.   
Coulson’s riders announced his arrival the next day. Erik and Charles barely out of bed and cleaned from the worst stench of sex.   
They knew what they wanted to ask for. Erik knew how preposterous it was, but Coulson had told him he could have anything he wanted, and Annie and Charles were what he wanted. Charles stood behind him, figuratively and literally, when Coulson rode into the courtyard.

“Lensherr! It’s so good to see you. How are you doing?” 

He was at him in a few strides enthusiastically shaking his hand and straightening him up from the attempted bow. 

“You’ve done marvellous work with this county. I swear, I haven’t seen roads in a better condition in the whole kingdom!”

Erik just smiled nervously, which came off more as a baring of teeth than anything else. 

“Ah, and this must be Master Xavier!”

He turned towards Charles.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, I hope you’re doing-“

He stopped abruptly, eyes fixed on the bruises Erik had left on Charles’ neck last night. 

“Sir, I need to talk to you. About the county of course but also about my reward.”

Coulson’s face turned stern and he looked at Erik sharply. 

Even people without Charles' gift probably could feel how everything froze in Erik.

“Sergeant! I’ve expected better of you.”

The High Constable stepped between them.

“Excuse me. I have to talk to Master Xavier in private. Which room would fit that purpose best in my new castle?”

“Sir, the great hall is empty at the moment, I really need to talk to you-“

“Yes I think we do. But after I have talked to him.”

“Sir-“

Erik strode forward, trying to understand what was going on, trying to explain, but Coulson reached for the handle of his sword and Charles shook his head in the back.

“I’ve said: I need to talk to Master Xavier alone.” 

His calm voice only made the dangling threat more serious.

Powerlessly and with bile rising in his throat he had to watch as Coulson put his hand to Charles shoulders and told him to show him where the hall was. 

 

The door behind the servant who had brought some wine closed silently and Charles was alone with the High Constable. 

“Please do sit, Master Xavier.”

He felt waves of anger and disappointment rolling off the man. Why? Had he desired to be with him? Even with all of Erik’s persistence on that matter he couldn’t imagine it. 

“Master Xavier, please take my heartfelt apologies. I trusted Sergeant Lensherr when I sent him here and I did not expect him to behave this way.”

Charles just blinked in incomprehension.

“He always appeared to be nothing but courteous towards any omega and I did not expect him to abuse his power this way. I hope he has not hurt you too bad?” He pointedly looked at the bruises again and the still a bit dishevelled hair.

Oh. 

Why did everyone always assume that Erik forced himself upon him? 

“Your lordship, I’m ever so grateful for your concern, but I can assure you that your man has not abused his power. He didn’t touch me in any way I didn’t fully consent to.” 

Coulson stilled, looked at him and poured him a glass of wine.

“In my long life I have met many alphas who pressured omegas into defending them in such situations. No matter what he promised you or threatened you with, I will guarantee the same or protect you from. You are a beautiful noble man and I understand why Sergeant Lensherr was tempted but there is no excuse for his behaviour. And you don’t have to shield or obey him.”

Charles chuckled.

“My lord, again, I am thankful for you concern, but Erik came here as an old friend. We have known each other for a very long time and due to my new status” he shifted on his chair, fully aware now of his thick and sweet smell “we have acted on feelings that were long in the brewing. Neither pressured the other one or made them do something they weren’t content with. In fact what the sergeant wanted to ask you downstairs was if you’d give me to him as his reward. As his mate, not as a bed warmer.”

“I figured that much.” Coulson slumped down on one of the chairs.

“And you would agree to that? When I learned that I would get Edrin I was very pleased. Not just because it is vast and good land, but because I’ve conquered and earned Westchester as well. It is your birthplace, right?”

Charles nodded. 

“I think you are aware that your stepfather and stepbrother have fallen in this war, which would make you the unsettled heir of the lands? I intend to keep the hereditary lines in my new fiefdoms. Well, as long as they’re loyal to King Stephen.   
My Field Marshal, Lady Hill is, and I was planning to arrange a meeting between you and her. She is a very capable and attractive young woman. She would make you a good mate and Westchester would strife under her rule. Are you still sure that everything between you and Sergeant Lensherr was consensual?”

Westchester. He hadn’t seen it since he was ten but he remembered the beautiful house filled with brutal, ugly people. He had never assumed he would go there again, but Coulson had just made it an option. And offered him a chance at a noble mate, a title, a barony for Annie. 

Charles smiled.

“Yes I am. You’re so very gracious and I wished that there were more people like you, thinking of an omega’s well-being and wishes. But I love Erik and I will always choose him if you allow it.”

Coulson took another sip of his wine.

“Well, that’s a pity. Maria will be very disappointed.”

Charles blushed.

“Sir, we have never met, I doubt that.”

“Oh no no, not because of you. I mean you are her type and she certainly would have agreed to that unity but I think the fact that she’s not getting Westchester will irk her more. It’s very conveniently situated to her own lands.”

Once more it took Charles a while to understand. 

Three weeks later he was standing in the huge hall of the royal castle. 

It had been years since he had been in the capital and for the first time he was the one who could choose the route of how to get there. Which meant they spend a good part of the three weeks on the road, visiting all the places Charles always wanted to see. And the city itself was a sight too.   
Cleaned up and decorated it was at its best. New shops, new people, Erik had wanted to show him his old house but it had been transformed into a pharmacy that from now on specialised in colours. Arts were coming back to the city. Poets and musicians, all following the Royal Prince’s call. Anthony Stark knew how to organise a celebration. All the nobles had gathered, everyone was in their best clothes. The Prince was well known for his lavish taste in fashion so everyone tried to outdo the other.

When Erik had met him this morning after he had spent the night in one of the preparation cells he was wearing a long red/magenta robe. He couldn’t have picked anything that was more garish if he had tried.   
But it didn’t matter; he looked so proud and happy just like Charles felt. 

Now they were in the hall, Erik on his knees at the steps before the thrones, King Stephen’s sword on his shoulders and Charles in the back. 

“Erik Lensherr, I hereby dub you Sir Knight. For your service in the war against the traitor Obadiah Stane you will be rewarded with the hand of the heir to the Barony of Westchester.”

This was Charles’ cue to step at his side. 

“You, your children and you children’s children will carry the title of a baron. Do it proud. Rise up.” 

Erik stood up, took Charles by his arm, smiled at the king who grinned back and made way for the next alpha in line. 

They weren’t back to their places in the hall when Erik stopped, beamed down on Charles, tipped his head back and kissed him for everyone to see. Charles wrapped his arms around his waist and leaned into their first public kiss.   
He could get used to this.


	21. Epilogue

When Erik woke he groaned at the strain in his muscles.  
He’d been to battle, lived on the road for the larger part of his life, slept on the floor and had not slept at all for days, yet nothing had left him knackered like this. And it wasn’t as if it was the first time, this came in its reliable 8 week rhythm, he should be used to it. 

But Charles in heat was a force to be reckoned with and now that the last pheromone clouds had left he felt the full expense of their undertakings. Charles was always bossy and demanding in bed, but during heat he was relentless, selfishly insatiable and seemingly set on destroying his alpha’s hips. 

Erik wouldn’t want it any other way. 

When he finally left the master bedroom he was greeted by a light chill. Autumn was coming and he had learned to love this season in his new home.  
Westchester was smaller than Edrin by far, no imposing tower and only a few guest bedrooms. But the castle was more comfortable, newer and beautifully situated on top of a hill from which he could see into the valley below.

And it also had a cosier great hall in which he found his mate, chipper and well-rested as only he could be.  
It wasn’t fair. 

Charles was braiding Annie’s hair. Lately she insisted on having it closely tied to her head because apparently it made her look more fearsome.  
Neither Charles nor he knew where that came from but they suspected Peter’s influence. Their play-fights had become fewer recently and when the little omega had pressed a kiss to Annie’s cheek last week she hadn’t reacted with disgust. 

Darwin was there too. At the moment he balanced a little dark-skinned girl on his lap and fed porridge to another toddler who sat on the table. 

“Papa!”

Jacob had noticed him first. 

“Morning!”

“Good Morning!” Charles turned his head to kiss him over his shoulder. He tasted like cinnamon and faintly like the herbal concoction he drank every morning. Hank and he had found it in some book and apparently it prevented impregnation. 

While Charles had happily announced that they would have an official heir to the Lensherr-Xavier name, they unanimously decided that two children were enough. Especially after Jacob’s difficult birth where he had held a bleeding and crying Charles upright for six hours, completely helpless and unable to do anything to ease his pain. 

“You’re just in time; Moira will be here in a few minutes to drop off Ewan and Peter. The new hats are very popular as it seems and she has to send more of them. They’re completely swamped. And Darwin and I will be off to meet the charcoal burners.”

“Ok, Hank is…”

“At the school, he won’t be able to look after Esme, so if you could please do that too?”

The little girl in Darwin’s lap lifted her head at the mention of her name. It seemed like yesterday when a panicked Hank had barged into their room carrying a night pot with something in it that looked suspiciously like the sloshy urine of a heavily pregnant male omega. Smelled like it too.

“What is that, Charles?!!”

The last months Hank had felt unwell and put on a lot of weight even though he was nauseous all the time. Now they knew the reason why.

“I thought you couldn’t get pregnant. You’ve never gone into a heat.”

“I haven’t!”

“How is that possible?!”

While the two omegas began rattling down medical explanations Erik had asked the question that interested him the most.

“Who is the alpha?”

Hank blushed and mumbled but Erik could make out the ‘Alex’.

“Or Darwin, I’m not sure.”

Charles had just stared perplexedly while Erik broke out into laughter after a few seconds. 

The former monk decided to stay committed to his research, so Esme was raised by Darwin and Alex who quickly had accepted the little omega, even though she wasn’t his biological daughter. At present he was in the capital. As a key element in the scientific exchange between Prince Anthony and Charles, he was responsible for the safe transport of every finding.  
Darwin was the head of the Westchester guard and therefore would accompany his lord’s consort to meetings with the folk. The charcoal burners were a reclusive bunch but like everyone else they had warmed to Charles and preferred doing business with him. 

Which meant that today Erik was in charge of the children.

“The Worthington’s will be around at noon” Charles said when Erik picked up the bubbling Jacob. 

“Oh…”

Charles laughed.

“Show a little more enthusiasm, would you. They mean well.”

“They asked if we’d agree to an engagement between Jake and their son! He isn’t even two!”

He pulled his son’s finger out of his nostril, kissed the hand and protectively huddled the small body in. The toddler had his reddishly tinted hair, Charles’ nose, Charles’ eyes, Charles’ red mouth and Charles’ rosy cheeks. 

“It’s part of their tradition. Just offer them some of the wine Raven brought back the last time and stave them off for another year.” 

“He won’t get engaged next year either. No you won’t, will you?”

Jacob’s face got even brighter.

“No!”

“I will never mate either. I will become a messenger just like Alex and travel all the countries in the world! How do I look, papa?”

Annie was finished and she indeed looked as fierce as a ten-year-old with a braided tail and huge blue eyes could look.

“Terrifying.” 

“And you will never have to if you don’t want to.”

Charles kissed their daughter on the forehead. 

“Well that is awkward to hear. Banner’s youngest has been speaking very highly of you when I last met him. I expect an offer soon.”

Moira was here.

“What? No, not that troll?!”

Erik and Charles managed to keep serious faces for about two seconds before they snorted at Annie’s shocked face and Charles chided Moira with not much bite. 

“Ok, we will be off. Have a great day!”

Charles hugged him, covering Erik with his warmth, and playfully kissed his upper lip. One arm occupied with the solid weight of his son he clutched Charles to his waist and kissed him back properly, before he took a deep breath of Charles’ scent. His mate’s pupils dilated and he blushed as prettily as he had ten years ago. 

“Come on, you’ve got time for that later.” 

Darwin put Esme in Daisy’s arms, the wet-nurse they had hired for Jake. She was forty, portly, with burn scars on her face. A good soul but not the smartest. Erik had made sure of that after he had heard what Moira and Charles used to do during their heats. 

Erik watched them get into the saddles of the horses Logan had led out of the stable. They waved and rode down the canopy road where the poplar trees began to turn yellow. Annie and Peter were quarrelling in the background over who could hold Ewan before Erik stepped in and gave the crying baby to Logan. He immediately stilled and Logan grinned at him smugly. 

“Yeah, you’re good at it. Promise me not to stare at Lady Worthington’s handmaiden too creepily again though. The poor woman was frightened out of her senses.”

“She gave me a lock of her hair!!”

Erik smirked and Logan grumbled.  
Annie and Peter were getting ready to head down to the school and he would ask the kitchens to prepare something a little more elaborate than their usual meals. And there was the staple of petitions Charles had left for him to sign in his study.

“Ready to do paperwork?”

“Papuhr.”

Erik took this and the way Jacob stuffed his tiny fist into his mouth as a yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!
> 
>  
> 
> Fluffy, fluffier, the fluffiest.
> 
> Thank you all for accompanying me on this shaky ride! I loved doing it and I think I've learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. The next bigger thing I'll do most certainly will have a beta. If anyone is interested, please contact me on my tumblr :D 
> 
> Also you may have noticed that I am a sucker for comments, so please leave your thoughts, constructive criticism, praise, physical equations, whatever you like! 
> 
> Love, peace (and serenity)!


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